


Until the Stars Align

by Palistus



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Femslash, Lemons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-10
Updated: 2016-05-07
Packaged: 2018-04-20 00:41:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 29,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4767068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Palistus/pseuds/Palistus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A story following the events of Until Dawn, where instead of Ashley having a crush on Chris, she actually has a crush on Sam, her best friend. There will be canon elements as well as a lot of changed things and events as well. This is Femslash, aka Female x Female romance, with Ashley/Sam.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

AN: I don't really know where I'm going with this, or how much I'm going to update, but there's a dreadful lack of femslash, and even worse, a lack of good pairings for the few fics that are in existence. Hopefully people at least enjoy this chapter, will try to not abandon it. Sorry for the lame title, too, I'm bad at this shit.

I'm going to change a canonical detail: Instead of Ashley and Chris having crushes on each other, Ashley has a crush on Sam, and Sam has a slight unconscious crush on Ashley. They're also extremely close friends. A few other details will change too of course, but that's a major emotional change in characters that I needed to note beforehand. With that said, enjoy the story!

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN UNTIL DAWN. Also, be warned, there is likely going to be femslash lemons, aka lesbian erotic sex in this story. If you don't like it, you probably should avoid reading this story, as I don't post those awkward "LEMON HERE SKIP IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT AND WATCH FOR ME TO SAY IT'S OVER" things that break immersion and just look tacky.

AO3 specific edit: Sorry, I had this formatted wrong when I pasted it into the box, I cleaned it up so it should be more readable now.

Prologue: 1 Year in the Past

It was that time of year again, when everyone took a trip to Blackwood Mountain for their winter break. "I'm so happy that we get to come here every year, it's gonna be so much fun!" Ashley said excitedly to Sam as they walked up to the gate that separates the mountain retreat from the world.

"Yeah, I'm excited too Ash, it's gonna be a great time as always," Sam replied as they walked through the open gate and to the ski-lift. "I think we're a bit late, everyone else's cars were there but nobody is at the ski-lift, they must already be at the manor." She said as they waited for the next ski-lift to come pick them up.

"Eh, no big deal, I'm sure they wouldn't start the party without the life of it being there!" Ashley said, grinning at her blonde friend.

"Yep, and I'm sure they'll be happy to see you too," Sam said humorously and winked at Ashley, eliciting a slight blush.

"Oh ha ha, very funny! You won't catch me arguing though," Ashley replied as they boarded the cable car that would take them up to the mountain.

"Hey, you know I didn't mean it, I don't think I'd even want to come if you weren't here with me Ash, you know I love spending time with you. Thankfully I didn't have to choose though, it's gonna be nice seeing everyone in one place, it doesn't happen very often." Sam said with a smile, feeling a slight unfamiliar flutter in her chest as Ashley looked at her with happiness, touched by the genuine-ness of her words.

"Yeah, it really is nice to have everyone together, isn't it? Ever since we all graduated, everyone's been pretty busy with work or school, I'm glad everyone managed to get a break from daily life to come here." Ashley said softly.

"Agreed, most of the others have been going down their own path in life. I guess we have too, really." Sam replied, placing her hand on Ashley's and leaning back in her seat. The rest of the cable car ride was quiet, both girls just watched out the side of the car and took in the view of the surrounding snowy hills. Once they got to the mountain, they exited and walked to the manor at a slow pace, taking in the calm, peacefulness of the landscape.

"I really love this place, it always just seems so beautiful to just walk around in." Ashley remarked about the lush nature around them.

"Same here, we need to make sure to go on a walk on some of the trails here before we have to leave, there's some really sweet sights to see!"

"Sure, want to ask the others if they want to come?"

"Nah, I don't really like walking around as a big group, it seems too rushed, let's just have it be you and me. Unless you don't want to if it's only us, it's cool if not, but it would be nice to have someone to experience it with," Sam said shyly, hoping that Ashley would agree to go with her, as she enjoyed spending time with her.

"Oh, no, I'm still definitely down to go, don't worry!" Ashley reassured Sam and smiled at her, getting one in return.

"Great!" Sam replied. "I see the manor, let's see what everyone's up to." They walked up to the large mansion-like estate. Sam knocked on the door a few times.

"Come in!" They heard Josh shout out. Opening the door, they walked inside and saw that everyone except Jessica and Emily was in the living room with the stereo on at a decent level where it was definitely a presence in the room, but you could still hear other people talking.

"Hey you two! Nice to see you," Josh said, and greetings rang out from everyone else as well.

"Hey everyone, good to see you too!" Sam said and Ashley nodded in agreeance, staying slightly behind Sam since her friend was a bit more confident than she was.

Ashley settled in and got comfortable, and the next few hours were spent catching up and joking around with everyone, including Emily and Jessica who eventually came and joined the group, as well as a bit of sneaking glances at Sam, who was enjoying herself and constantly laughing at the various humors of the party. It made her giddy and excited to see Sam that happy, and the butterflies that she fought to suppress were extremely potent in those moments.

"This is, such, a fun night guys! Ha ha ha! I love you, all!" Josh slurred out from the stool he was sitting on before taking another drink of liquor.

"Whoa Josh, you might wanna slow down, you might not last too long at this rate," Beth teased.

"Yeah, yeah you're, probably right Beth! But just because it's, the smart thing to do, doesn't mean I'll do it!" He laughed and took another drink, causing Beth to roll her eyes.

"I'm sure Josh will be fine, he can take it right bro?" Chris said with a smirk.

"You know it dude, just in my, prime havin' a good time!" Josh chuckled and poured himself another glass.

"Hey guys I'm gonna be right back, I've gotta, uh, take a leak." Mike said as Emily walked out of the room towards the guest room, following her out.

"That's weird, wonder what's up with them?" Sam muttered.

"I don't know, maybe they just wanted to make out for a few minutes.

"Yeah, maybe..." Hannah echoed with a sad sigh.

"Oh don't worry Hannah, there's plenty of guys out there, I'm sure someday you'll even like one of them more than Mike!" Sam said in an attempt to cheer up her nerdy friend. "By the way, I really like your tattoo! It's super cool," she continued to take Hannah's mind off of Mike.

"Yeah, that's pretty sick!" Ashley spoke up in reference to the Butterfly tattoo on Hannah's shoulder.

"Thanks guys, I really like how it turned out! I wasn't sure if it would look cool or not, but I like it." Hannah said with a smile.

A bit later, at about one AM, everyone was starting to get tired. "You guys can stay in the guest cabin like usual, everything should be hooked up and working, you remember the way right?" Beth said to Ashley and Sam.

"Yeah, we remember. See you in the morning! This winter break is going to be amazing!" Sam said and grabbed Ashley's hand, pulling her towards the back door where the path leading to the cabin was.

"Good night guys!" Ashley said with a smile as she let Sam lead her outside. "That was a fun night, are you feeling tired?"

"Not really honestly, but it looks like most of the others were so it'd be a bit lame to keep everyone up on account of me. Are you tired?" Sam replied.

"Not really, wanna stay up and watch a movie?"

"Sure, what type did you have in mind?"

"Well, the atmosphere is pretty right for a horror film, right? Not one of those cheap jump scare gore types though, like an actual psychological one." Ashley suggested.

"Sounds good to me, just don't expect your shoulder to not be clutched the entire way through if the movie is any good, you know how I am with scary movies," Sam said with a shiver.

"I'm sure you'll be fine, don't worry, I'll be right next to you the whole time," Ashley replied and squeezed Sam's hand.

"My hero!" Sam fluttered her lashes and grinned.

"I hate how far away this cabin is!" Ashley complained. "You'd think they would build it closer to the actual home so people don't have to walk up and down a path every time they want to get to or from it."

Sam shrugged. "I don't mind it, though it's a bit spooky to walk the path at night. No big deal though, we're on a mountain that requires a ski-lift to get up to, plus a locked gate to get to that. There's nothing up here that will hurt us, we just have to keep a lookout for bears or something.

"There's bears up here?" Ashley looked around them at the surrounding forest, eyes nervous.

"Yeah, but relax, they've never harmed anyone, they usually keep to themselves, and probably are hibernating at the moment."

"Oh, okay, that's good to know."

"Hey, there's the cabin!" Sam said, fishing in her pocket for the key. They opened the door and walked inside, where the room was comfortably heated. Sam flicked the light switch. "Damn it, why won't the light turn on?" She said frustratedly when nothing happened. The power was clearly working if the heat was on.

"Maybe it's an issue with the circuit board? I'll go check it out, give me a minute, I'm pretty good with these sorts of things." Ashley said and left the cabin, walking out back to where the circuit board was located. Her feet crunched in the snow and the solitude and silence made her a bit nervous. She wanted to get this over with and get back to Sam, and the warmth of the cabin.

She opened the circuit board and looked around in it. "Let's see… Oh, why is this unconnected? Hmmm, that should be, right?" Ashley got to work, but suddenly heard a twig nearby snap, and her eyes darted around her. "H-hello?" She called out in a wavering voice. "Is anyone there? This really isn't funny!" She nervously called to the darkness around her. She heard the snow crunching towards her, and she saw a dark figure that she couldn't clearly recognize. "Who are you?!" She yelled out and stepped back, but tripped on a large branch in the darkness. The figure drew closer and she scrambled away, backing up against a tree. "Please go away! Sam, where are you! Help!" She cried out, and the dark figure said nothing while it walked up to her until it was right in front of her, and she couldn't help but let out a whimper of fear. Wasn't this mountain supposed to be safe?!

"Ashley..." A distorted voice. "I… got you!" A familiar voice called out and Sam took off what looked to be a heavy black trench coat and mask. "You should've seen the look on your face!" She laughed loudly as Ashley looked at her dumbly.

"Sam… Sam that wasn't funny!" Ashley was still quivering and her heart was pumping at maximum speed. "I thought I was going to fucking die!" She said angrily and stomped past Sam back to the circuit breaker, flipping a switch and shutting it with a slam.

"Oh come on Ash, it was just a joke!" Sam said, starting to feel a bit guilty.

"Yeah, well it's not funny, how would you feel if some strange figure came out of nowhere and started silently walking up to you at night! Do you even realize how scared I was? I.. I can't even… Ugh!" Ashley grunted in anger and marched past Sam up to the Cabin door, going inside and shutting the door loudly, though not as aggressively enough to be called a slam.

Sam sighed. She saw that going a lot better in her head when she saw the outfit in the closet. "Ashley, wait up! I'm sorry!" Sam called out and followed her into the cabin. Ashley was laying down on the bed trying to calm her breathing, though she couldn't stop the light whimper from escaping her mouth every few breaths. "Hey Ash, I'm so sorry, I didn't think about how scary this prank would be, please forgive me!" Sam said with genuine regret as she laid down on the bed next to Ashley, wrapping her arms around the smaller girl and burying her head into her neck.

"I… I forgive you Sam, just please never do that again, okay?" Ashley replied, returning the embrace. She could never stay mad at Sam for long, even if she did almost kill her out of fright.

"Don't worry, I won't." Sam stayed cuddled up with Ashley for a few minutes. She could feel Ashley's heart racing, and her breathing was still a bit raspy. She guessed that Ashley was just taking a while to calm down, but in reality the reason why her heart was racing and she was breathing shallowly had shifted from fear to a mix of nervousness and bliss at having the girl she had liked for a long time in her arms like this, and she wanted to savor every moment.

Ashley forced herself to calm down within a few minutes. "We should probably start that movie, huh?" She said, regretfully untangling herself from the cute blonde next to her.

"Yeah, sure." Sam replied with a smile.

"I hope you realize that I'm going to put on the scariest movie they have in here, right?" Ashley smirked wickedly at Sam. "And you have to watch every bit of it without pausing or falling asleep!" Ashley said to Sam's horror.

"Ash! That's not f- er, actually, I guess it kind of is fair, hehe." Sam nervously chuckled, accepting her fate. She didn't know why, but Ashley had a really big stomach for horror movies, whereas she got really scared at even the bad ones.

"Damn right it is." Ashley replied with a smirk. "Let's see… Saw? Nah, too light. Blair witch? Better, but let's go with something more recent…" Ashley came across a title that made her eyes light up. "Okay, I've got the perfect movie, this is gonna be awesome!" Ashley grinned to Sam's dismay, who gulped but accepted it as her punishment for her badly planned prank.

Ashley popped in the movie to the DVD player and hit play, then returned to lay down next to Sam, putting some cushions behind them so that they could sit up and see the screen- the large, wide, amazing screen mind you.

Ashley was feeling bold, so she wrapped an arm around Sam and pulled her close as the movie started, which was a sufficiently scary film about an old woman with a mental illness who was seemingly possessed by a sinister force.

"Oh god.." Sam muttered in one of the many tense silent moments in the film where one of the characters was exploring a dark place.

"I hope it was worth it," Ashley said teasingly and squeezed Sam reassuringly, taking a hold of Sam's hand with her free one.

"Not in the slightest." She whimpered, resting her head against Ashley's shoulder and gripping her hand tightly. Her heart was beating fiercely, she assumed from being absolutely terrified of the movie's events combined with the darkness and somewhat isolated atmosphere outside of the movie around them. Thank goodness she had Ashley, or there was no way she'd be sleeping that night!

She also felt a sense of comfort having Ashley's arms around her, it was… soothing in a way, and kept her relatively calm and happy.

Suddenly there was a loud scare event in the movie and Sam jumped, grabbing Ashley and burrowing in close to her, scared out of her mind. At the same time, a loud screaming sound echoed out.

"Was that in the movie? Why would someone scream there?" Ashley wondered.

"I don't know, I would scream there too though!" Sam muttered, assuming it was just a background sound in the movie.

"Huh, that was weird, it just didn't really fit. Oh well, must just be a weird directing decision," She said and settled back down and immersed herself in the movie, plus in holding the beautiful blonde who had shifted into her lap. She rested her chin on Sam's head and wrapped her arms around the blonde comfortingly.

Soon, the movie finished. "Thank God that's over, holy crap that was scary!" Sam said. "I'm feeling pretty tired, but I don't know how I can fall asleep after that, do you mind if we stay like this? You're really comfortable, and I feel safe." Sam asked, shifting her head back so she could look Ashley in the eyes, who looked down at her.

"Sure, that works perfectly fine for me." She replied, before daringly leaning down and planting a soft kiss on Sam's forehead, her chest's flutters acting up as she did so. "Good night Sammy." She said, rolling onto her side and keeping her arms wrapped around Sam.

"Night Ash, sorry again for the prank earlier, I love you." She said in a warm tone as she snuggled into Ashley's embrace.

Ashley only wished she meant that in a different way, and fell asleep hoping someday that her wishes will come true.


	2. Aftermath of that night

AN: It's pretty rare that I'm able to publish a story AND fairly quickly write more chapters, but I'm feeling pretty good about this fic. I like that people are reading it at least, even if the metrics aren't too great- I'm not one of those writers who really cares about reviews, it's just nice seeing view counts being pretty good, which for a fandom this small, I consider what I've gotten to be pretty good. Thanks for reading, hope you guys enjoy, because I know I'm absolutely loving this story so far.

Also, I found out that the home is called the "Washington Lodge" but I'm gonna just keep calling it the Blackwood Manor for the sake of consistency.

Disclaimer: I don't own Until Dawn, and there is going to likely be either graphic or semi graphic femslash lemons, aka lesbian erotica. Maybe. I tend to write it, which is why I give this warning, but I'm not 100% sure if there will be a suitable place for it to not be forced. We'll see.

Chapter 1: Aftermath of the Deaths

Ashley opened her eyes slowly as the rays of sunlight started to hit her eyes, and was quite happy to notice that Sam was still curled up against her. She was still annoyed that Sam had thought that prank would be funny, but she could live with it if this was the reward she got- she'd never gotten this opportunity before, and it'd likely be a while before she'd get it again after winter break was over and they busied themselves with school.

She slowly ran her hand through Sam's soft hair and smiled softly to herself. Maybe, just maybe… She could work up the guts to confess her feelings to Sam soon. The only problem was that she was almost positive Sam had never even considered a relationship with another girl before, would she even be willing to try it? Could she ever return Ashley's feelings? Or would she just be disgusted that Ashley had been harboring those feelings for her and stop talking to her?

The answers eluded her, and she was scared to figure them out, because she didn't want to think of Sam ever hating her, or even stop talking to her, which is why ever since freshman year when they'd met in high school, she hadn't said a word.

"Mmm, Ash?" Sam murmured as she started to wake up, and Ashley stopped her hand from running through her hair, blushing slightly.

"Morning Sammy," Ashley said, returning her arm to holding Sam like she had been before she woke up.

"What time is it? I bet the others are already up since they crashed before we did." Sam said, yawning immediately after and sleepily leaning into Ashley's embrace, placing her hands on the other girl's arms.

"It's almost 11:00 AM, we should probably get up soon."

"Sure, let's just stay like this for five minutes though?" Sam said cutely, turning around and resting her head on Ashley's collarbone so that she could look at her auburn haired friend, as well as stretching out her arms before settling them around Ashley, returning the embrace.

"O-okay," Ashley stammered, hoping Sam didn't notice her heart furiously pumping away inside of her at the innocuous intimacy of the moment.

"Good," Sam replied, closing her eyes. They rested for a few more moments before getting up. "Dibs on first shower," Sam said as they both started preparing for the day.

"Sure, go for it." Ashley said as Sam closed the bathroom door. She sat up on the bed and clutched her chest, a happy grin on her face as she calmed herself down.

A few minutes later, Sam walked out in just her towel and went over to her suitcase, picking out clothes for the day, before letting her towel drop to start putting them on. Ashley's face flared up, and she tried to not blatantly stare at Sam's perfect bare body, but she couldn't. "You can shower now, I'm all done in there," Sam said, turning to Ashley as she pulled up her pair of jeans to cover her shapely legs and thighs.

Ashley quickly averted her eyes from the scantilly clad girl who still hadn't put a shirt on, and took a deep, calming breath. "Okay, thanks." She said, walking to the bathroom, but sneaking one last peek at Sam's bra-covered boobs as she started to put her shirt over her head to put it on.

"Oh god.." Ashley quietly groaned. Her panties were absolutely soaked from what she'd seen- she hadn't expected Sam to be so comfortable dressing around her, usually she got dressed in the bathroom in past years.

Ashley stripped down and got in the shower, turning the dial to make it cool rather than hot, hoping to calm herself down both mentally and physically. It didn't work.

"Jesus, she's so fucking hot," Ashley murmured to herself as her hand creeped towards her nether regions.

She managed to stay quiet somehow as she pleasured herself quickly, trying to not take too much extra time since Sam was waiting for her to head to the manor.

"Sam.." She whispered as she thrust into herself with her fingers, breathing heavily and shaking as sweet release ripped through her body as she pictured the nude form of the Blonde she was in love with. "Fuck!" She whispered expressively as she came down from one of the best orgasms she'd ever had. She quickly washed herself and got out of the shower, getting dressed in the bathroom since she lacked the confidence that Sam evidently had to show off her own body.

"Ready to go meet up with the others?" Sam asked as Ashley emerged from the bathroom, putting her sleepwear back in her suitcase.

"Sure, let's go." Ashley replied and they walked out of the cabin into the sunny afternoon, locking it up behind them. "I like this place a lot better in the daytime, this path is actually really sweet!" Ashley said happily and lightly grabbed Sam's hand as they started to walk back to the manor.

"Agreed, it's not nearly as creepy when you can actually see more than a few feet around you." Sam said. "It's surprising how big the forest on top of the mountain really is, there's a lot to explore up here," She added.

"Yeah, they even have a cool radio tower somewhere up here too, we should try to find it this year." Ashley responded.

"Sure thing!" They continued their walk in peaceful silence after this, taking in the surrounding area. For some reason she couldn't explain, the closer she got to the manor, the more a strange feeling bubbled up inside of Ashley. She dismissed it, not knowing why she would feel anything but happy to hang out with her friends for the day, but she couldn't fully shake it.

"Here we are, looks like everyone is still inside?" Sam said as they approached the manor, noticing the silence of the outside porch.

"Well it is cold out, so no surprise there. This is a winter getaway." Ashley replied as they walked up to the door and let themselves inside.

"Hey guys, we're here!" Sam called out.

"Morning guys!" Josh called out and walked down the stairs into the main room with Chris tagging alongside him. Upon seeing them, Josh's gaze turned questioning. "Uh, are Hannah and Beth not with you?" He asked.

"Why would Hannah and Beth be with us? Nobody came to the cabin at all last night." Sam replied, gazing at him inquisitively.

"Er, why would you think they were with us anyways?" Ashley asked, stepping forward to stand beside Sam.

"The others told me they went on a walk last night, and since they weren't here this morning, I thought they might've joined up with you guys at the cabin… That means they were out there all night? Holy shit, we need to look for them right now!" Josh said and went to grab his coat. "Everyone! Get in here, we need to go look for Hannah and Beth, they didn't come back from their walk last night!" Josh called out to the rest of the home, and everyone trickled into the main room shiftily.

"That's weird," Emily said as she looked sideways. "I don't know why they wouldn't come back." She said as Jessica, Mike, and Matt averted their eyes as well. Josh didn't notice this however as he was too worried about his sisters.

"Let's go, these woods are easy to get lost in at night, and there are a lot of abandoned places that they could get injured in, we need to make sure they're okay." Josh said and quickly walked out the door with Chris. "Beth! Hannah!" Everyone heard him call as the others followed them out.

"Man I can't believe they didn't come back, are they really that upset about a joke?" Ashley overheard Jessica say to the others..

"Maybe.. Maybe we went a bit too far guys, we really should apologize when we find Hannah, she seemed really upset." Matt said.

"It was just a stupid joke, she deserved it anyways." Emily said snidely.

"What are you guys talking about? I thought Hannah and Beth went on a walk?" Sam said, who heard the conversation as well and blocked the doorway. "What the fuck did you guys do?" She asked heatedly.

"Chill out Sam, we just played a little joke on Hannah," Mike said, speaking up.

"What kind of joke?" She replied evenly.

"Well, uh, Jessica thought it would be funny to have her come up to my room after everyone went to bed since she had been flirting with me a lot lately, and wrote a note saying to meet me there at 2:00 AM, where everyone would be waiting to jump out at her before anything actually goes down." Mike replied, a small semblance of guilt entering his voice.

"What the fuck? You actually thought that would be a good idea? You guys are complete assholes, you know how much Hannah likes Mike!" Sam said angrily and stormed out of the manor pulling Ashley along with her. "I can't believe those guys, God, I hope Hannah and Beth are okay." Sam said as they walked out into the forest. "They should've come back by now, it's after noon, even if they did get lost they'd know how to get back once the sun comes up! They know this mountain!" Sam continued.

"I hope they're okay," Ashley said softly, worried for her friends and knowing that Sam and Hannah were fairly close.

"Me too, Ash. I… I'm sorry for doing something as stupid as I did last night, thanks for not walking out on me and getting lost too, I don't know what I'd do if I didn't know if both of the most important people in my life were okay," Sam said softly, turning to Ashley and wrapping her in a fierce hug.

"I already told you that I forgive you, I wouldn't do something like that anyways, remember, I'm the chicken between us, I wouldn't last five minutes in that dark forest before coming back to you in the cabin anyways," Ashley smiled and returned the hug.

"Thank you, I love you," Sam said. "We really need to start looking for them, let's go." Sam said and they followed Josh's shouts in the distance.

They caught up with Josh and Chris, though the others were still lagging behind, even if they were keeping their eyes busy looking for the two girls.

"Any footprints or sign of them?" Sam asked worriedly.

"We found two sets of footprints leading away from the back porch, but it doesn't look like they were at a walking pace, they had to have been running," Chris said quietly.

"Josh, they didn't take a walk last night… The others thought it would be funny to pull a prank on Hannah and send her up to Mike's room to humiliate her in front of everyone last night, and apparently Hannah ran off afterwards, and I imagine Beth went after her." Sam said, anger entering her voice.

"What..? They did what? The fuck, how could they do that to Hannah? That's so fucked up." Josh said angrily. "Hannah! Beth!" He shouted in a panicked fashion as they continued to follow the pair of foot prints.

"Oh man, I hope they're okay," Chris said. "I can't believe that the others thought this was a good idea, this was supposed to be a fun vacation! Man, you think you know people.." He continued.

"We can deal with them later, let's focus on finding Hannah and Beth for now." Sam said and quickened her pace following the footsteps.

Soon they came across something that made them all freeze.

"What… The fuck?" Josh said as they all noticed a third set of footprints emerge from the trees and start to follow the first two. "No, there's no fucking way, we're the only ones on this mountain, no FUCKING way." Josh started saying and broke into a run. The other three with him started running too, matching his pace. "Hannah, Beth, where are you!" He shouted, fear laced in his voice.

"Who could it even be? How is it possible that there's someone else? The Washingtons have owned this mountain for more than 50 years, after the research labs and the mines got shut down..." Ashley asked Sam as they followed Josh.

"I don't even want to know." Sam replied worriedly.

They soon came to the cliff where the footprints lead. The sign had been partially broken off, and only one trail of footprints lead away from the area.

"Oh no, oh fuck no..." Josh said as he approached the sign and looked down, noticing a broken branch just under the cliff edge.

"Nobody could survive that fall…" Ashley whispered. "This is fucked up, this is so fucked up, oh my god, oh my god" Ashley cried out with tears in her eyes.

"Maybe… Uh, maybe it was the other person who fell, and at least one of the girls survived?" Chris said hopefully, trying his hardest to believe it. He followed the footprints to the forest edge, where they seemed to disappear in the foliage.

"Maybe you're right." Josh said with a blank look on his face, but he sounded at a loss.

"He has to be, there's no way that they're both dead, there's no way." Sam said. "We need to report them as missing and get some help, especially since we're not alone up here." She continued, "Let's get to the radio tower and try to get in touch with the forest rangers."

"Sure." Josh said, while Ashley and Chris just nodded, and followed her as she started along the path to the tower, only to have the rest of the group finally catch up with them.

"Did you guys figure out where they went?" Matt asked.

"I hope not..." Chris said and pointed at the broken sign where the footprints lead.

"Oh fucking Christ," Mike gasped and said.

"No, no fucking way..." Emily cried out. "They can't be…"

"It was just… a prank," Jessica let out softly with wide eyes, staring at the broken sign that read "DANG- CLI-" With the other letters missing from the broken off portion. Matt just stared helplessly, not able to find any words.

"I hope that you guys are fucking satisfied, that the prank was worth this." Josh said with quiet anger and kept walking towards the tower, and everyone else followed along without any retorts.

When they got to the radio tower and walked inside, Chris walked over to the radio transmitter. "I'll make the call." He said to Josh who just nodded.

"Hello? Is anyone getting this, over?" He said.

"Yes sir this is ranger station Delta 2, we're reading you, over. Is there something you need, over?" A voice broadcasted through.

"Yes, my name is Christopher and I'm here with my friends at Blackwood Mountain, we need to report two people as missing and would like to request a search party to help look for them. Their names are Hannah Washington and Beth Washington. We have reason to believe someone might have either harmed or kidnapped them, and they may have fallen off of a cliff on the mountain, though we didn't see anything at the bottom of the cliff, over." Chris said.

"Roger that, I'll log the report and have a search party up on the mountain within a few hours, over." The reply came. "If I were you guys, I would stay at the place they're most likely to return to if they live up there, just in case they're able to make their way back on their own." The voice said.

"Okay, we'll do that. Thanks for the help, over." Chris said, putting down the transmitter and stepping away from it. "You heard him, let's get back." He said. Josh looked like he wanted to argue, but he said nothing and just followed Chris as he walked out of the tower.

The group made their way back to the manor silently. Josh and Sam were still fuming with anger at the horrible result of the other's prank, while Ashley just looked down. She didn't know what to do in this situation where two of her friends could be… Dead.

They soon made it back to the manor and walked inside, awaiting either the search party or for a miraculous sign of either sister. Sadly, no miracles happened, and a few hours later full of tense silence, the search party arrived and they started to look for any sign of the sisters, or whoever could've been after them/taken them.

They never managed to find another trace of them, and by nightfall a snowstorm had come, effectively causing any possible trail to go completely cold.

After a few weeks of searching daily, the search was canceled, and the sisters were presumed dead, but labeled as missing still due to a lack of confirmation.

Soon, a few people would ironically wish that the presumption was correct.


	3. Chapter 2: Present day

A/N: Now we get to the good part: The actual storyline. Hope you guys are enjoying the story up to this point, I know my prologue setting lasted a bit long considering how short it is in the game, but I felt like it was necessary to change/define a good amount of scenes at that period in time, and swap some things around.

There are going to be many major things that change, with many major things staying the same. Mainly in relation to Sam and Chris's actions, since Sam pretty much replaced Chris's role in the game with being Ashley's romantic interest- he's still obviously Josh's best friend, but him and Ashley aren't really that close in my story, and an irrelevant note, he actually had a crush on Beth instead of Ashley. I might involve that into the story somehow at a later point.

Oh, and a further note that's actually somewhat important, I'm 95% sure I'm going to include an unrequited M/M crush to have a few scenes make sense in the grand scheme of things without having to drastically change things, insert an OC, or ruin the flow of things. Just note that even if I do this, there won't be any graphic romance between them, as I'm not a slash writer, I just know a lot of people are weird about this.

This really shouldn't affect the story that much, I just don't want anyone to freak out that someone is gay while reading a story about gay chicks.

Disclaimer: I don't own Until Dawn, nor do I own your hands. If you wish to not read/have read already scenes of a lesbian or just inherently erotic nature, I advise you to use said hands to back out of this story at your own risk.

Chapter 2: Present Time

The year after the disappearance of the Washington sisters, most of the group kind of drifted apart. There was some rooted animosity between Josh and everyone who was in on the prank, even if he tried to pretend both to them and himself that everything was fine, and that he could forgive them. He remained close friends with both Ashley and Sam, and obviously Chris was still his best friend as he had nothing to do with it.

The four of them met up sometimes and supported each other, and even somewhat rarely saw the other four as well from time to time.

Mostly though, the ones that stuck with each other the most for support after that horrible winter retreat were Josh and Chris, Ashley and Sam, and a weird dynamic between the other four with who's dating who at various times.

The situation and likely deaths hit both Ashley and Sam hard. Sam and Hannah were very good friends- not as good as she was with Ashley, but in the same realm of closeness. She was bent out of shape for a while, however she soon managed to conquer her emotions and keep living life despite having one of her best friends ripped away from her, though thankfully she still had Ashley. Ashley wasn't quite as close to either sister, but it was still a very traumatic experience for her as well, but she managed to stay strong and provide emotional support for Sam, causing the two to become even closer having gone through the ordeal together.

A year after the sisters disappeared, Josh spontaneously invited everyone back to Blackwood mountain, saying that he missed everyone and that Hannah and Beth would be happy that they continued the winter break tradition. Everyone accepted, and really most of them just wanted everything to go back to a somewhat regular state. Matt, Emily, Jessica, and Mike still felt guilty over what happened despite having apologized a multitude of times- apologizing does nothing to bring Hannah or Beth back, or to change what happened that night.

X

O, death. O, Death. Won't you spare me over til another year

Well what is this that I can't see, with ice cold hands takin' hold of me

Well I am death, none can excel, I'll open the door to heaven or hell...

"It sure it weird to come back here again.." Ashley commented to Sam as they rode the bus towards the gate leading to Blackwood Pines, turning off the radio app on her phone, finding the song a bit too somber.

"Yeah, I agree, but we've got to keep living you know? I know Hannah wouldn't have wanted everyone's lives to stop on her account, even the ones who were responsible for pranking her. There's no way they could've known that there was some crazy person on the mountain, or that she'd run into the forest and get caught by them." Sam replied. "I'm not sure if I'm ever going to be able to forget what happened, but I'm ready to forgive them for their mistake."

"Same here." Ashley replied and looked out the window at the surrounding snow-filled landscape. "I hope that it's not too awkward, everyone really needs to cut loose and have a good time for once instead of being stressed out over what happened."

"Maybe we can finally take that walk through the mountain that we said we were going to take?" Sam smiled at Ashley, who shuddered.

"I don't think I could ever walk around those woods knowing that there's a potentially insane murderer living in them." Ashley responded, shaking her head.

"Oh, you have a good point, they very well might be there still I guess." Sam frowned. "Please stay close to me this break. No wandering off into the woods at night, or even during the day alone, let's just stay as a group this time around, I… I can't lose you too, Ash." Sam leaned into Ashley and gripped her arm.

"Don't worry, you don't even have to ask me, I'd have to be insane to be alone in that forest." Ashley leaned back and placed her hand on Sam's arm, gripping it reassuringly. "Though, now that I think of it, didn't the search party go through pretty much the entire forest and the buildings throughout it? You'd think they'd have found the guy if he was still there, maybe he ran away?" Ashley wondered.

"Still, no point risking it, he could've found a place to hide. I'm pretty sure that nobody checked the old mines, and I don't blame them. That place is creepy as hell, and probably dangerous."

"Yeah, I guess you're right, but we should try to not spend our vacation looking over our shoulder every moment, we're coming here to spend time with everyone and to have fun." Ashley said.

"Agreed." Sam replied. She then closed her eyes and rested her head on Ashley's shoulder, feeling like taking a nap as they still had a ways to go until they were at the entrance to Blackwood Pines.

9:00 PM, 10 hours until dawn

A few hours later, they arrived, and got off the bus right outside the overhanging sign welcome them to the estate, as well as a small lit up shed just outside of it.

"Man, I wish we got here earlier, this place gives me the creeps at night." Ashley said with a shiver as they went past the small wooden fence and onto the Blackwood Pines property, shutting the gate after them and starting down the dark path.

They heard a twig snap nearby. "Hello? Someone there?" Sam called out, positioning herself slightly in front of Ashley and staring out into the treeline.

"It was probably just the wind… Or maybe a squirrel or something," Ashley said, grabbing Sam's hand and pulling her along the trail, wanting to get behind the actual gate as soon as possible just in case it wasn't as harmless as she implied. Sam shrugged and let herself be dragged forward, but she kept an eye out just in case, and fingered the pepper spray she kept in her coat pocket that she had decided to bring for safety's sakes. She hoped she didn't need it, but she felt a bit safer with it on her.

They came up to a large gate and wall after a small walk down the path, and noticed a paper on the middle of it, reading ' The gate's busted, climb over! -Chris'

"Great." Ashley muttered. She hated climbing. Sam had made her attend a few climbing lessons claiming that it was a good skill to have in general, but Ashley hated heights, and hated climbing things, so she didn't see how it would be useful. Apparently, for situations like this.

"Well well, guess you're lucky I dragged you to those lessons, huh?" Sam smirked at the other girl teasingly.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Ashley said

"That rocky wall over there looks pretty good to climb on, should be easy enough. You go first, just take your time and don't worry about messing up, I'll catch you if you fall." Sam said and pointed to the wall next to the gate.

"Okay," Ashley gulped. She walked to the wall and started to climb it, deciding to take the quick, direct way up, hoping to impress Sam.

"Yeah, just like that Ash! Nice!" Sam said from below her as Ashley scaled the wall. She was almost at the top, when suddenly her hand slipped.

"Ahhh!" She screamed as she fell, thankfully Sam was able to catch her in her arms.

"Okay, you might want to just take the easy way, there's a few more footholds," Sam said with a smile to the girl in her arms, whose heart was racing for a multitude of reasons, though surprisingly the main one at the moment was falling from several feet in the air- it was still pretty euphoric to have Sam catch her in a bridal-carry style.

"Yeah, I'll just do that," Ashley said. "You can let me down now Sam, as comfortable as your arms are," Ashley grinned and winked at the blonde, who slightly blushed and gently set her down without comment.

"Well, here goes round two," Ashley muttered and took the easier, if not slightly longer way up the wall. She didn't have any problems this time, and as soon as she got to the top of the wall, Sam quickly scaled it behind her the fast way, not hesitating for a moment. "Showoff," Ashley said with a laugh, and Sam chuckled.

"It's not like I get to show off rock climbing skills very often, can you blame me?" She said, hopping down to the ground, with Ashley right behind her. They walked towards the lighted path, both feeling a bit more secure being on this side of the gate, and having the pathway be lighten up this time.

"Let's see if the others beat us, shall we?" Sam asked.

"Okay," Ashley responded, and they started walking towards the path to the cable car station. They didn't get very far before a squirrel walked out into the path.

"Hey little guy!" Sam said cutely and picked up some acorns that were laying on the ground. "Are you hungry?" She asked and held them out for the squirrel.

Ashley stood still and didn't say anything, not wanting to scare the squirrel away, but thought that it was adorable as the squirrel approached Sam's hand and took one of the acorns before scurrying off.

"Seems like you're pretty popular around here," Ashley teased as Sam stood up again, and they made their way down the path. It was a pretty short walk before they came within sight of the lodge.

"Hey, check this out, it looks like the natives put up some sort of guidance board for their beliefs," Ashley said and pointed at a sign, depicting several different colors of butterflies and what they represent in visions.

"That's pretty cool, but kind of creepy. I mean, 3 of them are death, loss, and danger..." Sam shuddered as they walked past the sign towards the lodge. "I sure hope I don't have any dreams like that while we're here."

"It's just superstition anyways, relax!" Ashley said.

"Hey, superstitions have to come from somewhere right?" Sam replied, glancing at Ashley.

"Sure, sure, the next time I run into a wild pack of zombies or something, I'll let you say you told me so."

"Oh whatever!" Sam laughed. They walked up to the station, noticing nobody on the benches out front. They tried the door, but it ended up being locked.

"Ugh, really? Why is this locked," Sam grumbled as they stepped away from the door.

"Who knows?" Ashley answered, going to sit down on one of the benches. "Whose backpack is that?" She asked, noticing a non-worn backpack resting on one of the benches.

"It looks like that belongs to Chris," Sam said. "I wonder where he is..." She murmured.

"Wherever he is, I'm sure he'll be back soon." Ashley replied, and Sam sat down right next to her, making sure to have body contact because of how freezing it was. They waited there a few minutes, when Chris showed up.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" He asked, walking up to his backpack and slinging it across his shoulders. "You won't believe what I found, come check this out!" He said, beckoning them to follow him.

"Hello to you too Chris," Sam said as he started walking away in a lightly sarcastic tone, making Ashley giggle. They followed him out back and discovered a nicely put together shooting range full of cans, barrels, and sandbags.

"Check this out! It's got everything, even a sweet gun!" Chris said. "Either of you want to give it a go?" He asked, holding out the gun.

"No thanks, I think I'll pass." Sam said, shaking her head.

"Um, actually, sure!" Ashley said with enthusiasm. She didn't actually tell people this, but her dad used to take her shooting a lot before she left for college, and she was actually a pretty good shot for what it was worth.

"You know how to use it right? The bullets come from this end," Chris chuckled as he handed Ashley the gun as Sam watched in interest.

"Really? Thanks for the tip," Ashley said, lining up the sights with the bottle and pulling the trigger.

Smash! She then quickly lined up a shot with one of the cans, shooting it and knocking it off the barrel, before switching aim to the upper left sandbag and letting off one last shot, nailing it directly in the center.

Chris was speechless, his jaw slightly dropped.

"Nice shootin', Tex," Sam teased in a mimicked southern accent as she walked up to Ashley, clapping her hands a few times.

"Where did you learn to shoot? Man, I couldn't hit that bottle after three tries!" Chris exclaimed wondrously.

"I used to go shooting with my Dad a lot, I picked up some pretty good techniques." Ashley said with a modest smile as she placed down the rifle. "We should get inside, the cable car is coming back down," She said and lead the other two back to the front. She tried to open the door. "Crap, I forgot this was locked!" Ashley said in an annoyed tone.

"Yeah, Josh wanted us to keep it locked to keep people out." Chris said.

"He said that?" Asked Sam.

"Yeah, apparently they found some people sleeping in the station one time, ever since then they keep it locked by default." Chris explained.

"Whoa, that's creepy..." Ashley said as Chris unlocked and opened the door. They went inside and waited for the cable car.

It arrived soon after, so they locked the station and climbed aboard. "Everyone else is already up on the mountain, I was just waiting for you guys so that you could get in, so let's go!" Chris said and shut the door of the car, and the car started to ascend.

"Man, check out this view!" Chris said, staring at the dark, snowy mountain hills.

"It's pretty cool, but I prefer it in the daytime, everything just seems so menacing at night.." Ashley commented.

"I think it looks cool anyways, but only from above like this, being down in there at night would be a whole different world." Sam chimed in.

"Yeah, well some people would define Hell as a world," Ashley said and looked at the floor of the cable car, getting chills staring out at the dark terrain below. She didn't trust this mountain at all.

"Really? Because I think you just made that up, but good point." Sam teased, and then looked back out at the darkness while waiting for the cable car to finish getting them to the upper cable car station.

It thankfully didn't take very long to get there, and soon the cable car stopped as it arrived at the station, and they all climbed out.

They tried to open the door out of the station, but found it was stuck shut. "Oh come on, why would somebody lock this," Chris said as the door refused to open.

"You can lock this from the outside? Isn't that a bit backwards?" Ashley asked, as usually that door was open when they came.

"You'd think so normally, but the Washingtons are pretty thorough with their security, and they figure that it's not like anyone unauthorized would be likely to be locked outside of the station, whereas someone could easily break in to the lower cable car station, take one up here, and boom, they'd have free access to roam as they please." Chris explained.

"So what now?" Sam said.

"Someone should be nearby, let's just wait for them to unlock it. If worst comes to worst we can just break the window, but that wouldn't be very cool." Chris said.

"Yeah, let's not start out the trip by damaging property..." Ashley said. As luck would have it, Jessica was walking around just outside of the station.

Sam wrapped on the window a few times. "Hey! Jessica! Can you open the door?" She shouted, causing Jessica to come over.

"Sure thing Sam!" She said, pressing the switch to unlock the door, and allowing Chris to get it open.

"Whew, thanks!" He said.

"No problem, glad you two could make it," Jessica said referring to Ashley and Sam.

"Thanks," Ashley replied, and Sam nodded.

"Where's your stuff? You don't plan to wear the same thing all week do you?" Jessica asked in a joking manner.

"Oh, we were just here last month, so we decided to just leave some clean clothes here so we didn't have to bring luggage onto the bus and hike up the mountain paths with it." Sam explained.

"Yeah, we mostly keep our things in Hannah's old room. I guess that might sound weird, but it's strangely comforting to spend time in there," Ashley said, and Sam nodded in agreeance.

"Alright, alright, let's get up to the lodge, all this time in the cold nature is getting to me," Chris said with a shiver and started to walk towards the path.

"Okay, you guys go ahead, I'm gonna stick around here and see who else is coming." Jessica said with a smile as she walked back to the bench.

The other three walked towards the path to the lodge.

"She must be waiting up for Mike," Ashley said.

"Are they a thing now? I thought Mike was still with Emily?" Sam asked.

"No, they just broke up a few weeks ago, and now Jessica is with Mike and Emily is with Matt." Ashley said.

Chris shrugged. "Kind of weird honestly, it's like they just swapped around dating." He said.

"Pretty much." Ashley said. They decided to shrug it off and kept walking to the cabin.

"I feel bad for Matt, I saw him lugging his and Emily's bags around earlier, sucks for him." Chris said, chuckling.

"Oh man, I like Emily and all, but being her boyfriend would suck if you don't have a spine." Sam smirked. "She really needs to learn how to treat people right, it's pretty mean to take advantage of a partner who doesn't have a backbone for conflict, Sam said, and Ashley's heart pulsed, wondering if Sam was somehow meaning that towards her?

Probably not.

"Agreed, though it's not like she's THAT bad, just pretty high maintenance," Ashley said. There were a lot crueler people out there than Emily to be with.

"True." Sam echoed.

They approached the lodge as the treeline cleared out and revealed it.

"Hey guys and gals! What's up?" Josh said enthusiastically, fist bumping with Chris and giving the two girls a hug.

"Hey Josh!" Sam said.

"Hi," Ashley chimed in as well.

"Give me a minute guys, the lock froze shut, I can't get this door open." Josh said, trying without luck to heat it up with a lighter.

"Well, maybe we can get in another way?" Ashley offered.

"Are you suggesting we break in?" Josh replied.

"Well, is it really breaking in if you own the entire mountain?" She replied smartly.

"I guess not if I don't report it," Josh joked with a smirk. "Lead the way, Ash." He said. "We'll let you guys in when we can get the door open, be right back." Josh said to Chris and Sam, who nodded and started to catch up with each other as they waited.

"Sam was looking pretty smoking today, right?" Josh asked as they walked along a side trail to get to the other side of the lodge.

Ashley glanced at him strangely. "What?

"She's a real bombshell, you know? I can't help but wonder how luscious those curves are under her sweater, you feel me?" Josh laughed.

Ashley felt a venomous rage build up inside of her that she struggled to suppress. "Um, yeah, I… I guess," Ashley stuttered out even though she wanted to slap that grin right off of Josh's face for him thinking of Sam like that.

Though, it pained her to admit that she didn't really have a claim on Sam or anything, especially with her being to chicken to risk their friendship to make a move.

"So when are you gonna make a pass then?"

Ashley froze. "W-What do you mean?" Ashley tried to keep a straight face, but inside she was panicking. How could he know? There's no way that he could know that, she'd never told anyone in her entire life.

"Oh come on, you think I don't see the way you look at her? You're lucky she's so oblivious to it. Then again, maybe not… I'm pretty sure it's not as one-sided as you'd think." Josh said leaning in.

"How long?" Was all Ashley could say.

"Well the first time I knew for certain was a year ago, but don't worry, I don't think anyone else notices it, they don't know the signs." Josh said, sighing strangely.

"Please don't tell anyone, okay? Also, the next time you talk about Sam like that, I'm going to punch you, and I'm pretty sure that would hurt me more than it would hurt you, so don't make me do it alright?" Ashley said, lightly glaring at Josh.

"Yeah, don't worry, I was just messing." Josh said with a light hearted smirk and kept walking. "Though, you really should just go for it. Life's too short for hesitation, you never know when it can all just… Slip through your fingers." He said, gazing into the distance.

"I don't want to ruin our friendship, it's not that easy to just walk up to her and say "Hey Sam, I've been in love with you ever since I met you 5 years ago! Let's make out!" She said bitterly.

"Why not?" Josh asked. "Do you really think she wouldn't consider it?"

"That's just it, I don't know, and I'm scared to find out. Maybe you're right, life is too short to hold everything in. I don't know, I'll think about it." Ashley said as they came up to the side of the lodge. "Thanks," She added.

"Anytime girl, I've got your back." Josh said. "Both of you." He added, and she assumed he meant Sam.

"You think I could fit through the window?" She asked as she noticed a row of windows on the side of the lodge.

"Yeah, they're big enough that it could work." He said, and Josh boosted her up to the window, where she opened it and slipped inside the lighten up room. "Nice, take this lighter and see what you can do. I think I have a can of spray-on deodorant in the bathroom if you're up to making a flamethrower," He said.

"Sure, I'll see you out front." Ashley called back and went into the house. The lights were all on thankfully, and so she didn't have a hard time finding her way to the bathroom, and grabbed the can of deodorant spray.

She walked down to the living room, and noticed a blinking answering machine. She felt a bit curious, but also a bit bad for intruding- but it was pretty rare that anyone called the lodge's number, what if it was important?

Her curiosity won out and she pressed the button.

"We're sorry Mrs. Washington, but there's nothing we can do, he's a free man. We just didn't have enough evidence to keep him locked up." An official voice said, and the message finished.

"End of messages." A feminine robotic voice rang out

"That was weird… Why are they trying to get someone jailed?" Ashley muttered as she made her way towards the front door, before using the makeshift flame thrower to melt the lock.

Sam stared at her through to tinted glass expectantly, but Ashley hesitated, figuring that putting her bare hand against metal that had just had fire directed at it might not be the best plan, so she went and got a glove from the kitchen before opening it up with her hand protected from the heat.

"Nice one Ash!" Sam said and clapped her on the shoulder, and everyone else filed in, having arrived as Ashley had spent the time getting the door open.

"Well, let's get a fire going, then get the party rolling!" Josh said as he went about starting up the fireplace, and everyone settled into the living room, not knowing how long the night ahead of them would turn out to be.


	4. Chapter 3: 10:30 PM

A/N: I'm surprised, I haven't managed to stay interested in writing a story for this long in a while, probably 4-5 years when I wrote a terrible Harry/Hermione fic and then deleted it at 20k because it made no sense and the writing was bad. Thankfully, this is actually pretty good in my opinion, so there won't be a repeat of that.

I really wish more people would write femslash fics for Until Dawn, it's a bit lame to be writing one out of two total femslash fics for the fandom, especially since I'm not a big fan of OCs. Oh well, maybe eventually there will be more. Until then, I'll just have to settle with what we've got.

Also, I'm sorry for the delay, I recently started college and that's eating up a lot of my time for writing.

Disclaimer: I don't own Until Dawn, and there are going to be femslash erotica written in this story at some point 99%. If you disagree with either of these concepts, then you might consider stopping reading.

Chapter 3

10:30 PM, 8 HOURS 30 MINUTES UNTIL DAWN

Five minutes didn't go by before the retreat already started going roughly, when Emily felt it necessary to provoke Jessica into an argument over her and Mike cuddling up on the couch together.

"stop it!" Josh said firmly. "This isn't what we came up here for, if we can't last ten minutes without fighting, maybe we should take a little break? Mike, how about you and Jess check out the guest cabin, the one I told you about, huh?"

"Sure, you up for it Jess?"

"As long as I don't have to stick around the peanut gallery, sure." Jessica replied and followed Mike outside.

Pretty soon, Josh realized he forgot to give them the key, so he followed them out back, and Emily was complaining about her bag being forgotten at the cable car station, leaving only Ashley, Sam, and Chris in the room.

"Well then, that's a nice fun bit of drama to start off the vacation with," Chris said lightly, shaking his head.

"Oh my god, I really can't stand them sometimes." Ashley responded as she went to sit down on one of the unveiled couches.

"Well guys, I'm gonna go lay down for a bit, I've got a really huge headache right now, so I'll see you in a bit." Chris said as Josh came back inside, and he walked up the stairway towards the guest rooms.

"Okay, see you in a bit." Sam replied, sitting down next to Ashley. Suddenly, the lights flickered, before shutting off.

"Oh come on," Josh said with a groan. "I'm gonna go down to the basement and fix that real quick. Sam, you mind helping me out?" He asked.

"Sure thing, we'll be back before you know it Ash," Sam said, getting up and following Josh down to the basement to see what the problem was with a flashlight in tow.

"Great.." Ashley muttered at being left alone in the dark, expansive structure. "Just everyone take off and leave me alone in a dark ski-lodge, nice." She said, before smirking menacingly, knowing exactly what to do.

She got up and went to the other basement door, leading to the storage area rather than the piping of the basement, where she knew there are several decent costumes, thinking that her time for payback for last year's prank had finally come. When she got to the costume room, she looked around for the box she was looking for. She wanted to make sure that she didn't find something too scary, but just enough to spook them a bit while being obviously fake once they get a closer look.

X

Sam followed Josh down the steps to the basement. "Wonder why the wires cut out?" She inquired.

"Who knows, all that stuff is pretty old though, we might have to get the fuses looked at before too long." Josh replied evenly. "So, you and Ashley have anything specific in mind for this winter break?" He asked conversationally, causing her to give him a bemused look.

"Yeah, it's called staying safe and inside the whole time. I'm surprised Matt and Emily, and Jessica and Mike for that matter wanted to walk off this lane at night after what happened last year." She said.

"What happened last year won't happen again." Josh said quietly. "The police combed every last bit of this mountain, and we've cracked down on security, plus we've been fine every other time we've come here throughout the year." He added. "You don't have to worry about a repeat of what happened,"

"I hope you're right, but still, I'd rather be safe than sorry." She responded. "I need to look out for me and Ash's safety first."

"You're looking out for Ashley's safety too, huh? What's going on between you guys, anyways?" Josh asked as if he already knew the answer.

Sam blushed slightly. "What do you mean by that? Of course I'm looking out for my best friend, I'm not losing her like I lost Hannah." Sam said.

"You know, eventually it'll be too late." Josh said mysteriously and kept walking.

"What does that even mean?"

"I'm pretty sure you know exactly what I'm talking about, but you just don't want to see it because you're worried, you've never been good at confronting your feelings." He said.

"I.." She trailed off. "I just don't know what to do about it, I can't even remember where it started, or why," Sam said looking down. "What if she isn't open to that sort of thing? I don't want to risk losing her Josh, I can't risk losing her, and I'm completely fine with just being her best friend," She said, her voice dropping at the end.

"Are you actually fine with it though?" Josh asked as the came up to the fusebox. "Hold this please," He said, handing her the flashlight, and she nodded.

"I think so." Sam replied.

"How would you feel if suddenly she got in a relationship because you didn't make a move? You know Ashley is too shy to instigate things if she did like you, which, by the way, she does, but she's not going to spend her whole life sitting on feelings for you." Josh said as he tinkered around.

"You're probably right, it's just so weird to think about, we've been best friends for 5 years now!" She sighed. "But you're still right. I should probably use this trip to find a way to get her alone and lay it out." Sam said. "How did you know, anyways?"

"Trust me, I can see these things from a mile away. Just make sure you do something, you never know when it could be your..." He paused, hooking something up inside the box. "Last chance," He said as the lights came back on.

"Sure, sure." Sam said. Truthfully, she wasn't sure how or when she began to feel something more than friendship for Ashley, but it had been a while now, she just didn't want to address it, especially after Hannah and Beth got killed- after they possibly heard them get killed that night. Life is too short to put these things off though, so she'd find a way sometime on the trip to let Ashley know how she felt, and she hoped to God that Josh was right about Ashley's feelings towards her, because her stomach was a flurry of excitement at imagining finally being able to express her feelings that she'd kept down for the longest time. "Thanks." Sam said and they started walking back to the staircase, only to freeze when they heard a loud, rhythmic beating from somewhere in the basement.

"What was that?" Sam asked. "You hear that too, right?" She asked, getting freaked out. "The rhythm's like… weirdly regular," She said.

"Nothing regular about it," Josh remarked.

"We should check it out, it could be a pipe messing up or something, or a pressure valve." Sam said worriedly. "I wouldn't want this weekend to end with the house flooding or burning down or what not."

"I doubt it's that," Josh said. "But we probably should check it out," And they walked down the somewhat lit hall towards the sound. It started growing louder as they approached, when a menacing figure in a cloak and a ski mask jumped out of them, grunting "Boo!".

Sam and Josh both screamed as they ran away from the figure. "What the hell!" Sam cried out as they stormed up the staircase as the low grunting of the figure behind them continued. They got to the top and tried to open the door. "Why is this locked!" Sam screamed.

"T-To keep strangers out!" He said, positioning himself in front of Sam towards the stairs.

Within a few seconds, the cloaked figure stumbled up the stairs, panting heavily. "Uh, woooaaahhhhh" It said with a labored breath, flailing it's arms around a bit. "Oh screw it," A familiar voice said as Ashley ripped off the mask, breathing hard with a flushed face.

"Ashley? What the hell!" Sam said with an annoyed face.

"Oh come on, that was totally justified," Ashley smirked, and Josh laughed.

"Oh don't tell me you were in on this?" Sam lightly shoved Josh.

"Nah, but I wish I was, that was a pretty good one," Josh grinned and high fived Ashley. "You might want to consider working out a bit more though, not very scary to get chased by someone who tires out after ten seconds of running." He teased the auburn haired girl.

"Oh shut up!" Ashley groaned, still exhausted from the chase. She didn't go running very often- she'd have to talk to Sam about joining her on her morning jogs in the future.

"I guess fair is fair," Sam huffed, smiling at Ashley. She wasn't too upset since Ashley didn't really take it too far at all, it was a pretty funny prank looking back on it.

"Damn straight," Ashley smirked. "Let's get back up to the lodge?" She asked, pointing at the door, and Josh fumbled around for his key set, unlocking the door and exiting the basement.

"So, guess what I found when I was down there?" Ashley said as they walked up.

"What is it?" Sam inquired.

"Just sitting on one of the tables was this totally cool looking Ouija board! I've heard that they're pretty mysterious, and I was just wondering if you guys… Well, wanted to try it?" Ashley said, pulling a small board and triangular piece out of her cape.

Josh grinned. "Sounds like fun, let's try it out," he led the two girls upstairs to a small round table with comfortable chairs surrounding it, and beckoned them to take a seat.

"Well, let's give it a shot I guess," Sam said nervously. "How do we do this?"

"Give me a second, it came with a manual," Ashley replied, pulling out a small book and opening it up. "It says here, to communicate with the spirit world, you must free your mind of all preconceptions, drop all inhibitions, and generally give yourself over entirely to the will of others, sublimating your every desire to the spirit master," Ashley smirked devilishly. "Which in this case, is me."

Sam gave a humored smirk. "It doesn't say that."

Ashley shot her a look, "And all present must obey every command I give them, and treat me as a spiritual goddess."

Josh sighed. "Come on Ash, let's take this seriously."

"Oh, I'm perfectly serious," Ashley chuckled in a low tone, clearly fishing for laughs, which she earned as Sam let out a small giggle.

"Okay guys, for real though, let's try this out." Sam said, looking pointedly at Ashley.

"Yes, please." Josh said.

Ashley sighed exaggeratedly. "Okay fine, let's see what happens. Sam, you're better at the whole questioning thing than I am, do you mind being our medium for tonight?" She looked inquisitively at the blonde girl.

Sam shifted in her seat with an unsure look on her face. "I guess I can give it a shot," She said, and then cleared her throat, putting her hand on the center-piece along with the others. "Um, is anyone there? Hello? Any spirits out there? Can you hear me?" Sam asked, and paused for a few moments. She was about to speak again when the centerpiece began to slowly move upwards, to the "YES" sign.

"What? Who's doing that guys?" Ashley nervously laughed and shifted her eyes from Josh to Sam repeatedly.

"This isn't me," Sam said, and Josh nodded with a wide-eyed look.

"W-Who is there?" Sam asked with a slight quiver, unsure what to think. The centerpiece moved in sequence, spelling out "SISTER"

"Sister?" Josh trembled in anxiety. "Ask them whose sister!"

"Josh, it has to be… Hannah or Beth," Ashley whispered.

"Fine, ask them which sister then!" He said quickly.

Sam continued, "Who are you specifically?" the board responded HANNAH

"What happened to you, Hannah? Please, tell us, where are you?" Josh said, ignoring the tradition of the medium. The board spelled out DEAD.

"I… How? How'd you die?" He slowly got out. KILLED was the response.

"Look, you guys, this isn't funny, okay? I don't know if you thought this was supposed to be funny, or help me, but it didn't." Josh said, looking upset.

"I swear to God Josh, I didn't do that, and I know Sam wouldn't either! Something freaky is happening!" Ashley got out, looking to Sam with a desperate look in her eyes, who nodded in agreeance.

"Whatever, I can't handle this right now."

"Josh, please!" Ashley begged him, her eyes glistening and her hands clasped together.

"Just… Just don't, Ash." Josh sighed and walked away from the two girls.

"Should we do something? Go after him? Anything?" Ashley said, staring down at her hands and quivering slightly.

Sam gripped Ashley's hands in her own tightly in reassurance. "Just give him time, he'll be okay," She said, releasing Ashley's hands and enveloping her in a tight hug that she felt they both needed after that experience.

"I trust you and all, but you didn't actually do that stuff, right?" Sam asked from their embrace.

"I swear, no! I didn't, I would never!" Ashley looked Sam directly in the eyes.

"Okay, I believe you, that's just… That's really scary," Sam shivered.

"Yeah.." Ashley said.

"Well, what should we do now?"

"Let's just make some hot chocolate and wait for the others to get back in a bit, we could use some relaxing after that ordeal." Sam paused and reluctantly broke the hug. "Besides, if that was Hannah, it's not like she's going to haunt us." She looked around the room, "At least, she better not choose to haunt one of her best friends," Sam smiled softly.

"I hope so," Ashley said, her body finally starting to un-stiffen. "It would be pretty lame to haunt us instead of the people who pranked her last year. Still, that really sucks that she really died," Ashley said sadly. There might've been almost virtually no chance that Hannah could've survived, especially after a year of no contact, but stranger things had happened in the past.

"Anyways, let's get to that hot chocolate, shall we?" Sam said, back to her normal self, and confidently led Ashley down the stairs towards the kitchen door.

Before they got to the door, it rattled, and the heard a male voice call out in distress, but sounded muffled.

"That sounds like Josh!" Ashley said, running for the door slightly ahead of Sam. She opened the door, peering inside. "Josh?" She asked, but suddenly was grabbed and pulled inside the door, which slammed shut behind her.

"Ashley!?" Sam shouted, pounding on the door.

"Help!" Ashley cried out, but soon had her mouth covered with a wet rag, and slowly her consciousness slipped away.

"Hang on Ashley, I'm coming!" Sam kept trying to get the door open, throwing herself against it repeatedly until finally it burst open. "Ash!" She shouted at seeing the auburn girl's body on the ground, unconscious but thankfully still breathing. Moments later, she looked around, but it was too late to stop the hands that shoved a rag to her mouth and nose as well, and like Ashley, she quickly lost consciousness after a small struggle.

X

Josh sighed behind the mask. He really wished that he didn't have to do this to these two, but he couldn't let his plan for the weekend go to waste, and their roles were essential to his plans for the others. He refused to actually hurt them, though, and resided to only scaring the hell out of them- hopefully they'd understand why later.

He dragged off Ashley's body to the shed where he had set up the saw and lever, knowing that Sam was the brave one who would be more likely to venture out in search of Ashley if she thought Ashley was in danger, and then lied in wait.

X

Sam woke up slowly, getting to her feet. "Wha- Ashley!" Sam shouted as she recalled what happened. "Ash, where are you? Please answer me!" Sam called desperately, panic rising up deep in her chest. She couldn't let Ashley be taken away from her too, she refused to let it happen. If some sick freak killed Ashley too… "No, that won't happen." Sam said firmly, "I-It won't." She tried to reassure herself, and decided to jump into action.

She searched around the house until she found a large mass of red liquid on the wall that looked a lot like blood. "God damn it," She cursed, but quickly told herself that it didn't look quite like blood, and that there was no reason for it to be Ashley's blood regardless, why would it be on the wall but not the floor?

She noticed nearby a swinging, open door, leading out into the forest, and she quickly left. "This is so ridiculous, I'm never coming here or letting Ashley come here again," She muttered, rushing out the door. Most likely, the person who kidnapped Ashley didn't actually kill her if he felt the need to make a fake blood-spatter instead of a real one on the wall.

She spotted more red substance on a trail nearby, and ran down it until she came across a large wooden structure with the door wide open and the light on, in front of what looked like a warehouse.

"Sam," She heard a distressed moan from inside.

"Ashley?!" Sam called. "Ashley, where are you?"

"I don't know, I can't move! Please, get me out of this!" Ashley cried out more clearly now as Sam entered the building, keeping an eye on her surroundings so she wouldn't get caught off guard. She doubted she could beat the kidnapper in a fight, but she'd be damned if she didn't try in order to save Ashley.

"I'm coming Ashley, hang on!" Sam called, and went towards Ashley's voice. Suddenly, a light flickered on, and Ashley and Josh appeared before her strung up, with a giant saw blade in front of them. "What the fuck is this!" Sam growled out, her eyes fixated on Ashley, and noticing Josh. She felt slightly guilty for forgetting about him, he was in danger too, but her main priority was Ashley.

"Sam? Are you there?" Ashley called out.

"Yes, I'm here-" Sam spoke, but a voice cut her off.

"Hello, and thank you all for joining me. Tonight, we're going to conduct a little experiment, a sort of test. But for this experiment, we'll need the participation of our two test subjects, Ashley, And Joshua. But for this experiment, we'll need another brave volunteer to choose, which subject will live, and which will die." A robotic voice said.

"Oh God no, please get me out of here! Don't do this," Ashley screamed as the saw blade started whirling. "Sam please, you can't let me die!" She called out.

Josh sighed next to her. "I, I obviously don't want to die, but I know you're going to save Ashley, and I just want you to know, I don't blame you for it- it's not your fault this happened, Sam, don't feel guilty." He said.

The robotic voice started again. "In front of you, you'll find a lever that you may use to save one of your friends. Choose wisely, and thank you for playing this little game, I hope you found it… Satisfactory." It cut off.

"I'm sorry Josh," Sam cried out, tears cascading down to the ground. "I'm so sorry." She said as she turned the lever towards Josh.

"This is so fucked up, please, don't do this!" Ashley cried out, but the voice didn't answer her, and the saw kept going towards Josh, who gulped. He tried to stay silent as the blades cut into his flesh, but let out loud, bellowing cries of pain as the saw-blade sliced through his flesh, cutting him cleanly in two. "Oh God, Sam, please tell me he's okay, please!" Ashley said, looking away, knowing that he actually wasn't.

"Ash, don't look, I'm gonna get you down," Sam got out as she rushed to Ashley's side, untying her from the bindings and letting her down.

"Oh god, Josh, no!" Ashley whimpered as she saw with her own eyes the dangling, cut in half body of Josh.

"Ash, we need to get out of here," Sam said, knowing they couldn't afford to stay and deal with their shock at their friend dying. Her mind entered survival mode, and she intended to protect Ashley and herself from further harm, and anything else could be dealt with later.

"O-Okay..." Ashley said and let Sam lead her out of the building, back towards the lodge.

A few steps outside later, they heard a familiar voice, "Sam!" they heard Matt call, and saw Emily and him walking up to them. "Jesus, is that blood?" He asked.

"Yes, there's a crazy person up on the mountain with us, and he killed Josh!" Sam called to them with panic. "We need to get everyone together and get out of here!" She said.

"Holy shit, we need to get some help!" Emily said incredulously. "I bet Mike and Jess are still off sixty-nineing each other at the cabin, and who knows where Chris is. You guys need to gather everyone together, me and Matt will get the police or someone up here, okay?" Emily said.

"You're right," Sam muttered, not liking the fact that they weren't just leaving, but knowing she wasn't willing to cause three more of her friends to die to some maniac.

"Okay, make sure to lock the doors and try holing up in the basement with the others, we'll be back as soon as we can, okay?" Emily ordered, and Sam nodded.

"I… Man, this is fucked up." Matt shook his head. "Make sure you guys stay safe, and you should take this." He reached into his pocket and grabbed his switchblade, handing it to Sam. "You'll need it more than we will I bet, the ski-lift isn't far from here."

"Thanks," Sam said gratefully, knowing that with a weapon she had a better chance at fighting off the kidnapper if he returned. "Good luck," Sam said, and started leading Ashley back to the lodge, where she hoped that they would find Chris, and maybe even Mike and Jessica if they were lucky, but probably not since they went to the cabin.

They finished the short walk to the lodge at a quicker pace than usual, shutting and locking the door behind them.

"Thank you," Ashley whispered and wrapped Sam in a death grip. "Thank you so much," Tears were rolling down her cheeks as she sobbed into Sam's chest.

"There's nothing to thank, I'm always going to be here to save you Ash," Sam said gently, returning the embrace and bringing one hand up to stroke Ashley's hair softly. She felt a wave of love and protection surge over her, and she vowed that she would get Ashley off this mountain and away from whoever was out there no matter what she had to do to accomplish it.

"Let's go wake up Chris." Sam said after a few moments, and Ashley nodded, remembering they were gathering everyone up that they could. "Though, I think Mike and Jess are on their own until help comes, we can't risk going out to the cabin, it's not safe."

"Maybe they're out of the way enough that he won't touch them?" Ashley murmured softly.

"I hope so," Sam replied as they walked up the stairs towards the bedrooms.

AN: I don't usually like doing ending AN's, and this will likely be the only one in this story: I just wanted to note that I'm changing a few details from canon intentionally because of the fact that Sam and Ashley didn't participate in the prank, either one in this story, and Josh 100% knows that. He doesn't want to involve them too much in his game, and he doesn't want to hurt them, which is why he didn't punch Sam to knock her out like he did Chris in the game, and why the spirit board scene was a bit less hostile/urgent.

He intends to still scare them, obviously, but he wants to make sure they don't actually get hurt or injured in any way.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Okay, I'm going to try to not have any more month long delays between chapters, sorry for the delay. Also, just assume everything I don't explicitly write about is the same as whatever game version you prefer, because I'm not going to write about scenes that don't include Sam and/or Ashley. Pretty much just reverse Chris with Sam in their positions, aka Chris replaces Sam for her role from the game pretty much.

I made this chapter have some extra length to make up for the fact that it's been several months since I updated. I'm hoping to not have a long update period like that again, but I'm fairly sure people will be a bit more satisfied with where it leaves off this time rather than where I left off last chapter.

I'm not 100% sure if I'm going to go with people dying at specific spots, so I'm just planning on filling that stuff out when the time comes.

Chapter 4

02:00 AM, 5 HOURS BEFORE DAWN

"Damn it, where could he possibly have gone?" Sam muttered worriedly. "The worst part is that he could've just wandered off to find us and had no idea about the maniac on the loose up here..."

"Oh God, I hope he's okay..." Ashley said. They had just finished checking through every single bedroom in the lodge and Chris was nowhere to be found.

"Let's check down in the basement maybe? There's a lot of rooms down there and stuff in general that he might've gone to check out if he didn't know the situation." Sam said, looking towards the descending stairway that led to the basement and all that it encompassed. She then noticed Ashley's trembling body and look of fright. "I think we owe it to him to at least try..."

"Yeah, I know we need to, it's just… this is all so fucked up." Ashley murmured.

"I know Ash, but we'll get through it, and we need to try to not let that maniac get any more of our friends." Sam started walking over to the staircase with Ashley right behind her. "Hang on, let's get some flashlights, it's probably gonna be pretty dark down there." Sam stated and went over to a nearby drawer in the living room area that had old style heavy flashlights and some battery packs. Similar stashes were pretty frequent around the house given that there were occasional power outages due to snow storms on the mountain, and it was good to be prepared.

"Okay, let's go." Sam said after handing Ashley a flashlight with fresh batteries loaded in. They proceeded to head down the stairs, keeping alert for any out of the norm sights or sounds. Sam opened the door to the home theater room, finding it empty and silent. Strangely, the movie screen was on even though nothing was playing, emitting a bright black screen that lit up the room, illuminating the comfy atmosphere with a sizeable amount of recliners, love seats, and even a beanbag chair. On the walls were movie posters advertising some of Josh's father's latest movie releases over the past few years.

"This place would actually be pretty cool if not for the crazy murderer that we have to worry about," Ashley commented looking around. This room hadn't been quite as decorated in past years that they'd come here.

"Yeah… Josh was telling me how he made some improvements over the year," Sam sighed sadly, and Ashley looked down at the floor. "He was really looking forward to this get together, he seemed really excited, and then all of this happened." She continued.

"I can't believe that he's gone..." Ashley's eyes started tearing up in memory of her friend's mutilated body, hearing his pained screams in the last moments of his life. "Sam, I..." Ashley started, before stopping and looking at the ground.

"I know, Ashley." Sam said, placing a comforting hand on Ashley's shoulder.

Ashley sighed. She was extremely scared that she was going to die that night, or that she'd lose Sam, which might be even worse. She wanted to at least speak up just in case and let Sam know how she felt, but the words wouldn't come out. She figured now might not be the best time anyways… But who knew if the best time would even come while they were both still breathing?

"Let's keep looking," Sam said, turning away from the brunette girl and continuing into a connected hallway to the home theater room.

"Okay." Ashley followed her through the doorway, when suddenly the door slammed behind them and the sound of a latch clicking was heard. "What the heck!," Ashley cried out, grabbing at the doorknob and trying to open it. "It's locked..." She inhaled deeply and exhaled, trying to calm herself down. Sam remained silent, looking unnerved. They walked forward, and Sam tried to open a door directly in front of them.

The door slammed itself shut and locked itself. "This is screwed up," Sam muttered, realizing that someone was toying with them. She used her free hand that didn't have the flashlight to get out Matt's switchblade and held it in front of her defensively. "Stay behind me Ash," Sam said mustering up her courage and continuing forward. There was only one door left in the hallway that could be possibly unlocked, so she headed towards it and tentatively opened it. Thankfully, this one let itself be opened and led them into another hallway, this one having moderate furnishings that were covered by sheets to prevent dust from covering them.

"Whoa!" Sam cried in surprise as she looked down the hallway and saw a figure disappearing around the corner, but it looked… transparent.

"What? Sam what is it?" Ashley looked around her with wide eyes.

"I don't know, I swear I saw something over there," Sam said softly. "Hold on," Sam advanced up to the corner and peered around it. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she gestured to Ashley to follow her and walked forward. As they approached the end of the hall, a door slowly creaked open, revealing a stairway downwards into the actual basement part of the lodge.

"I… I don't know if I can do this Sam," Ashley trembled and stared at the flickering light that hung above the staircase. "This is just so messed up." She said softly. "Someone, probably an insane killer is clearly steering us forward, I'm scared Sam," Ashley continued.

"I know Ashley, I'm scared too, but we have to do this. Even if we wanted to, we can't go back, the door is locked, and I don't think staying in this hallway is much better than going forward. At least we have a chance of getting out or finding Chris if we keep going…" Sam said, turning towards Ashley and looking her in the eyes.

"I guess you're right… Just give me a moment." Ashley said and wrapped her arms around Sam, trying to calm her racing heart. She felt Sam's hands carefully wrap around her in an embrace as well, making sure to not drop the switchblade or flashlight in the process. "Okay, let's go." Ashley said after a few moments, gulping audibly. Sam nodded, and started down the staircase with Ashley following behind her.

"At least this place is more lit up," Sam commented, eyeing the flickering lights on the stairs, before coming out into a narrow passageway that had a steady light bulb illuminating the way forward. They came up to an opening where it looked like a bunch of kid's things were stored, when suddenly a loud crashing sound erupted from the right side of the room and a few random objects went flying from a wardrobe. "Jesus!" Sam shouted as her eyes flicked from place to place, trying to find anything or anyone would could've caused it.

"This is so not cool," Ashley said as she looked around the room. She noticed a large doll house next to the creepy rocking horse. "Also who the hell would give that to a child..." Ashley said, eyeing the horse's expression and wide eyes.

Sam checked out the rest of the room and made sure nothing else was in the wardrobe, or down by the wine racks. After she deemed the room empty, she walked over and joined Ashley next to the doll house.

"This… This almost has to be the others playing that prank." Ashley muttered, balling her hands into fists. It had everyone's hair color and bodies down relatively perfectly, and even had a video camera like Matt used to carry around.

"God, this is sickening." Sam sighed. She noticed a keyhole at the top of the doll house, and wondered if they should try to get inside of it. Somebody had clearly set this scene up, and there had to be an explanation as to why.

"Let's just keep going," Ashley said. Sam nodded since they didn't have the key to open it, but figured she'd keep an eye out for it. As she looked at the end of the hallway, she saw a ghostly figure walking around the corner. "Sam, look!" Ashley cried out, grabbing her shoulder. By the time Sam looked, the figure had disappeared.

"What is it?" Sam asked, looking around the hallway.

"There was somebody there, I swear! It looked like a ghost," Ashley said quietly in a scared voice.

"I..." Sam said, not knowing how to refute it. She saw a similar thing earlier, plus the whole spirit board event, was it possible that Hannah was actually roaming around in ghost form? But if she was, why would she be trying to scare them off? She was Hannah's best friend… Unless she was trying to lead them to something? "It's definitely possible, let's get going." Sam said, spurred on to action. They walked down the hall, but something caught Ashley's eye above the table on the left.

"Hey look, it's a key. Maybe it goes to the doll house?" Ashley said.

"Most likely, yeah. Maybe that's what the ghost was leading us to? I don't know." Sam said, taking the key and walked back to the doll house, opening the top up. "It looks like Hannah's diary..." Sam said, slowly reaching out to pick it up.

January 9th, 2013  
It's actually happening! Mom agreed to let us hold a party at the lodge, I can't wait! Ashley, Matt, and Sam are all coming! It looks like Mike hasn't responded yet though… :(

January 18th, 2013

Omg! Mike is coming for sure, he told Josh earlier today, I'm so excited! I wonder if him and Emily will be together still… I hope not :D even if they are though, at least I'll get to see my besty Sam, and all the others are cool too!

February 1st, 2013  
The party is tomorrow! I'm so excited that it's finally happening, it looks like everyone is coming, I can't wait to party it up with warm fires, hot tubs, beer, and OMG, MIKE! I'm so psyched to spend some time with him! I know I should stop being so obsessive over him especially since him and Emily STILL (sadface…) are going strong, but I can't help it, he's just so dreamy!

"This is so sad..." Ashley said softly as Sam placed the diary back in the dollhouse.

"Yeah, I just can't believe she's gone even to this day, all because people wanted to prey on the fact that she liked a guy that she shouldn't have. And one that didn't deserve it," Sam said in an annoyed tone. "And now everyone else is paying for their mistake it looks like." She grabbed Ashley's hand and walked down the hallway. They came into another storage room with moonlight streaming in through the windows. On the table, Ashley noticed a red like shining from behind a box. She approached it and saw a camera set on record.

"What a psycho." Ashley said angrily. "Hey buddy, go suck an egg!" She said and threw the camera at the wall fiercely, causing it to break and various pieces to fly out, hitting the table and floor.

"Uh, are you okay?" Sam said, looking at Ashley strangely.

"Yeah, sorry, I just had to get that out." Ashley replied, feeling a tiny bit better. She noticed an out of place book and a pair of scissors on the table. "Hey, check this out," She said, picking up the book. "It's a catalog for industrial grade lightbulbs. Weird.. I wonder if it was for a movie scene or something." Ashley said, noticing one of the bulbs circled with a red marker. "Whatever." She said, placing the book down, but grabbing the scissors to put in her pocket just in case, making her feel a bit more secure.

"Yeah, seems a bit weird, but so does everything else tonight honestly. I wouldn't give it too much attention." Sam said and she walked down the hallway. "Let's keep going," She said. Ashley nodded and followed her. They soon came across yet another small staircase, this time leading into a broken down hallway that looked like it hadn't been in use for several years, having a bunch of tears in the wall and a broken roof.

"Where the hell are we now? Did you even know this was here?" Ashley muttered, looking at the state of the new area.

"I have no idea, it looks like an old hotel or something, but I don't even know where this is on the surface." Sam said, looking around nervously. Thankfully, nothing else happened to them as they continued down the shambled hallway, coming across what looked like an old bar with a gated off staircase and a door leading further in.

"I wonder what this place was even used for, or why they stopped." Ashley said, looking around. With a bit of repair, this could be a pretty nice underground hotel… thing.

"Maybe it was from before the Washingtons bought the mountain or something." Sam said.

"That's probably it." Ashley replied as they walked out of the bar.

"Not again," Sam said, exasperated as she saw yet another dark staircase going downwards, this time on where they couldn't see anything as to what they'd find on the bottom.

Sighing, Ashley spoke up, "I don't want to go down there, but we have to do it. I'm starting to think Chris might now be down here at all though, I hope we're not doing all of this for nothing."

"Wouldn't that be just great, if Chris was just taking a walk or something and was already back upstairs." Sam said, but knew Ashley was right, and they had to keep going. She didn't even know a way to get back to the lodge anymore considering the way they came was locked off, so they might as well press forward before looking for a way out. "Well, let's go." They started down the staircase.

The silence around them seemed sinister in nature as every footfall on the wooden staircase and the creaks that followed seemed booming, before they got to the bottom of the stairs and emerged into a moonlit hallway that was much more cold and harsh than the ones before it. As they walked on, a small, electrical crackling sound was heard from somewhere up ahead.

Walking through the doorway at the end of the hall, they noticed a set of batteries with timers, one labeled "TV" and one labeled "Lights" that seemed to be emitting surges every few seconds.

"Weird," Sam said, looking at the timers. "It looks like whatever this was for already went off, the timers are both at zero."

"I don't like this, that almost has to be connected to the maniac..." Ashley murmured, gripping the scissors in her pocket tightly.

"It means we might find Chris down here after all, at least, I just hope that's all we find." Sam comments. Soon, they find themselves walking into an extremely creepy lit up room with a bunch of chains, what look like cages, and a mannikin strapped to a surface. "On second thought, I'm not sure if I want to find him down here," Sam says worriedly as they enter a dark room in an extreme state of dis-use, with a bunch of hooks and cleaning supplies, and what looks like a saw blade in one of the sinks with dried blood on it.

Within a few seconds of them entering the room, the metal door slams behind them, leaving them unable to turn back. Ashley whimpered in fear, looking around the room and at all of the menacing things inside of it. It looked like it was a sort of kitchen at one time, or somewhere that food was prepared at least. Now, it was degraded into a room straight out of nightmares, even having a large pig hanging from one of the hooks, wet with blood still, with flies buzzing around looking for a meal.

"What is that?" Sam asked, pointing at a section of the wall that had several photographs posted onto it. She shined her flashlight on them to make them visible, and shuddered as she saw that they were pictures of them. The only missing ones were Matt and Jessica, and it looked like whoever had put them up had crossed out Emily's eyes with large white X's.

"Whoever put this up really doesn't like Emily I guess," Ashley said, noticing her picture was the only one distorted.

"Can you blame them?" Sam retorted nervously, not sure what to think about the images. She figured that the killer had done this beforehand rather than as a mark of having killed Emily, otherwise Josh's picture would be marked as well, but why only her? Did the killer actually know them all somehow? "I hope everyone is okay," She said, walking away from the photo wall, eager to be out of the frightening room.

"Me too." Ashley said. The next room they walked into had a large projector with the light turned on, pointing at a blank screen. Out of curiosity, Ashley flicked the switch on, and the projector started rolling, and voices were heard, along with footage of people coming into Mike's room and lying in wait for the prank to occur. "Oh no..." Ashley muttered, knowing what this was.

X

The scene started. "I can't believe you did this," Emily laughed as she got into her hiding spot.

"Oh come on, she deserves it." Jessica replied. "Quiet, she's here!" Jessica said, stifling a laugh.

The door in the camera footage slowly creaked open, and Hannah stepped inside. "Mike? It's Hannah." She called out.

"Hey Hannah," Mike replied from his position on the bed.

"Well, uh, what were you thinking about doing?" Hannah stammered out with a blush on her face.

"Maybe we can start with a little making out, and see where it goes from there?" Mike replied.

"But…" Hannah started with a weird look on her face, before sighing. "I guess if you say so." She said, and started to unbutton her blouse.

"Oh hell yeah..." Mike muttered huskily as he took in the attractive girl undressing in front of him.

"Oh my God, she's taking her shirt off!" Jessica laughed, eliciting a snicker from Emily.

"What? Oh my God," Hannah gasped as she noticed other people were in the room. "Matt? What are you doing here?" She asked Matt who was holding a camera at her face. "What's going on?" She cried out, a large blush on her face as everyone made themselves apparent, leaving her feeling utterly humiliated.

"Hannah, hey," Beth said, coming up to the doorway from outside, but Hannah shrugged her off and ran downstairs. "I can't believe you guys! How pathetic can you be, playing on someone's feelings like that? Really?" Beth said to the room full of people who were laughing still and ran off after her sister. Shortly afterwards, the footage stopped.

X

"Wow." Ashley said, shocked at what they'd just seen.

"I didn't realize how bad it was." Sam said stiffly. "That they would do something like that in her own family's house that they were staying at..." Sam sighed deeply. "Disgusting." She commented harshly. She still would try to save their lives tonight, but she was heavily reconsidering her friendship with those involved in the prank, as well as her forgiveness of them. Seeing the prank go down was a grim reminder of how their actions directly caused her to lose two good friends.

"Yeah." Ashley murmured, speechless. "Let's keep looking for Chris." Ashley said, wanting to keep occupied.

"You're right, let's go." Sam said, grabbing Ashley's hand and holding it tightly as they moved forward, holding the switchblade in the other hand. There was a decent amount of natural lighting in this section of the building, so one flashlight was good enough- she hooked the other one onto her side by clipping it onto her belt loop.

They suddenly heard a masculine voice shout "Please, stop!"

"Chris?" Sam called out, running towards the sound. "Quick, this way," Sam called, throwing open a doorway to the room where the yelling came from.

"Oh no," Ashley muttered as they saw a chair with Chris in it facing away from them. "Chris?" Ashley called out as they approached the chair, turning it around, and coming face to face with an unconscious Chris.

"Oh thank God, he's still alive." Sam said, letting out a sigh of relief as she noticed he was breathing. What they failed to notice was the soft footsteps behind them, before someone grabbed hold of Sam, pressing a cloth to her mouth and nose as she struggled against their grip. "Ash, run!" She tried to get out before slumping over on the ground.

"Oh shit, please no, please God no!" Ashley cried out as she dropped the flashlight in surprise, scrambling to pick it up. When she got it, she pointed it at the figure, who looked like an insane clown who was staring blankly at her. "No, get back! Get away from her!" Ashley said, noticing Sam's body laid across the ground and feeling a heavy rage overtake her. "You can't have them!" Ashley cried and took the scissors out from her pocket, sticking them in the clown's shoulder.

"Ahhhhhh!" A pained, distorted yell emitted from the clown figure as he cringed in pain. "No, no no no!" The distorted voice cried out. "Live and learn!" He shouted before turning back to Ashley and slugging her in the eye with his gloved fist, knocking her out. "Live, and learn." He looked down at Ashley's body a bit guiltily, before dragging the bodies off into the darkness.

X

Sam was slowly regaining consciousness an unknown amount of time later, before snapping her eyes open. "Ashley?!" She cried out as she saw Ashley unconscious across from her with a black eye, and noticed that they were both strapped to their chairs. "Ashley, wake up!" Sam cried out. "Please, come on, wake up!" She yelled again, and Ashley started to stir.

"Sam? Sam where are we?" She asked as she regained consciousness. "What did that clown guy do to us?" She said as she struggled against her constraints.

"I don't know, but I swear, I'm going to kill this son of a bitch!" Sam said, furious that he had hurt Ashley. "Where are you! You better let us go, so help me God!" Sam yelled to the surrounding dark room.

"I'm scared Sam, I don't want to die, please, oh God please don't let us die here!" Ashley cried out in a panic as she noticed the gun on the table. "Please, please don't kill us, we haven't done anything to you!" She said to the empty room.

"We're not going to die Ashley, don't worry." Sam noticed the gun on the table too, and picked it up with her free hand. She had no idea what sort of killer would be stupid enough to let their victims have a weapon, but she intended on utilizing it.

"I want to believe you," Ashley said, tears in her eyes. "I really do, but we're trapped down here in the hands of a psycho that already killed Josh, and probably Beth and Hannah too.. It's just not fair!" Ashley cried out, tears streaming down her face. "We haven't even begun our lives for real yet and this happens to us..." She continues. "I couldn't even tell you..." Ashley sobs, looking down at her lap with a feeling of utter hopelessness.

"What?" Sam gazes at Ashley's shaking figure. "Tell me what?" She asked the other girl in a gentle tone.

"It's too late, Sam, what's the point..."

"It's never too late Ash, if we don't make it out of here, I want to at least know this." Sam said, her stomach clenching up and a heavy feeling weighing on her heart. Was Josh actually right? Had she really been oblivious to her best friend's feelings this entire time? She needed to hear Ashley say it herself.

"I hate it… That I've always just pretended that it wasn't there, even when it was such a huge part of life, like living and breathing," Ashley says in a shaky voice. "And now I realize how much time I wasted all along," She looks down again sadly "All of it, just wasted..."

"Ashley, no, not wasted, none of it was wasted, please don't say that," Sam begged. "All of the time we spent together could never be a waste, no matter what happens." Sam said passionately.

"W-What do you mean?" Ashley muttered, looking up at Sam.

"Every moment I've spent with you, every single second, it could never be a waste of time Ashley, believe me." Sam said, staring straight into Ashley's eyes as she bared her soul. "Spending time with you is what made living manageable after Hannah and Beth were murdered, and even before that. You're my best friend, and-"

"That's the problem, I'm tired of it! I'm tired of pretending that being your best friend is okay with me!" Ashley cried out, and Sam's heart sank. Was she misunderstanding something?

"W-What do you mean?" Sam asked in a scared tone.

"Sam," Ashley whispered, letting out a heart-wrenching sob. "I love you, and I mean really, really love you." Ashley said. "For years now, I've been convincing myself to not say anything because I was scared of ruining our friendship, I didn't want to ruin what we had if you didn't feel the same way." Ashley said softly. "But I needed to tell you this before this killer does whatever he's going to do, I'm in love with you, and I have been for a while." Ashley stares down at her lap as Sam absorbs the information, and slowly starts smiling happily, blissful tears running down her cheeks as her fear and the gravity of the situation disappeared.

"I'm happy, Ash," Sam started. "I'm happy that you feel that way, and I want you to know that I love you too, truly." Sam continued, and Ashley looked at her in shock.

"Really?" Ashley stammered out.

"Yes, really. And I promise you, none of the time we've spent together has been a waste, and none of the future will be either. I promise, I will do everything I can to get us both out of here alive, please believe in me." Sam said, looking around the room and focusing on the issue at hand.

"I do, I just couldn't stand the thought of dying with that unsaid."Ashley breathed in deeply in an attempt to calm herself down.

"I was hoping to find time this trip to admit my feelings for you, to be honest," Sam said, still staying alert to her surroundings. "I'll admit that I didn't even realize how I felt until recently, but it should've been obvious all along. But then all of this craziness happened." Sam let out a humorless laugh.

Before anything more could be said, a saw blade above them started up, its deadly blade whirring noisily above them.

"Oh God, not this again..." Ashley said in a defeated tone, doing her best to not completely freak out and scream her lungs out.

"Hello again, my little subjects." A voice called out from a communications system. "What a touching moment, I'm sorry to interrupt, but there are more… pressing matters to attend to." The voice let out a chuckle.

"Don't be scared Ash, I will get you out of this." Sam said firmly.

"On the contrary, you should be terrified." The voice called out. "Because here's the twist. Sam has already had to make one fatal choice today, and now she must make another." The voice paused. "Sam, you can take that gun in your hand and either shoot Ashley, or shoot yourself. Whoever remains alive can go free," The voice says evilly. "The choice is yours, who's it gonna be Sam?"

Sam sighed deeply, coming to terms with what she had to do. "Close your eyes Ashley, you don't want to see this." Sam said in a miserable tone as she realized what she had to do.

"What? Sam, no, please, you can't!" Ashley cried out as Sam raised the gun to her temple. "Don't do this, it should be me! You already saved me once, please, let me save you this time, I don't know what I'd do without you! I can't survive without you in life, never mind with an insane killer chasing after me! Please, I know you have a better chance than me after all this is said and done to live, so don't do it!"

"Ashley, you know I could never kill you." Sam whispered. "I'm sorry, it's just not possible. I hope you find it in you to forgive me for this one day." Sam gulped. "I love you Ashley, please never forget it, I love you so much," Sam said as she closed her eyes and pulled the trigger, causing a loud blast to be heard and Sam fell into darkness, slumping down in her chair.

"No! Sam, please God tell me this isn't real, no!" Ashley cried out, tears blocking her vision of Sam across from her. "Wait..." Ashley said, blinking the water from her eyes. "Sam?" She called out as she noticed there wasn't a giant mess of blood coming out of her head, or even a bullet wound. It looked like she was just unconscious. "Sam!" Ashley called loudly, causing the blonde to stir.

"Is this hell? Do I have to re-do the last part of my life over and over again or something?" Sam muttered as she opened her eyes and saw Ashley across from her and that she was still strapped to the chair with a gun in her lap.

"Sam, you're alive!" Ashley exclaimed happily, and the constraints that were holding her to her chair clicked open, freeing both girls from being trapped in their chairs. "Oh my God, I'm so happy you're not dead!" Ashley quickly got up and wrapped her arms around the still dazed Sam and sobbed into her neck. "I thought I was going to be alone down here..." Ashley murmured. "Never do that again, please!" Ashley said, taking the gun out of Sam's lap and placing it on the table.

"I'd make the same choice every single time Ash," Sam said, slowly bringing her arms up to hug Ashley to her. "I guess the gun had blanks in it. I'm happy to be alive, but I don't think we're in the clear yet," Sam said softly, but continued holding Ashley close to her.

"I love you Sam, I really really do," Ashley smiled up at her.

"I love you too Ash, I meant every single word," Sam said, returning the soft smile and leaning down to press her lips gently against Ashley's, pouring her soul into her lips as she kissed her lovingly and chastely. "We really need to focus on getting out of here though." Sam said as she reluctantly broke off the kiss and stood up, causing Ashley to stand up as well.

"I agree, we need to find Chris, too, because the killer obviously still has him if he's not here." Ashley said seriously. "Do you still have Matt's knife?" She asked.

"Yes, it's in my pocket."

"Okay, let's get going then-" Suddenly multiple people entered the room. On one end of it, Mike and Chris walked out of a door, and on the other, the insane clown paced over to them slowly.

"Stay the hell away from us," Sam said menacingly and took out the switchblade, flicking it open and getting in front of Ashley. "I don't know what sort of sick game you're playing, but we're done playing it!" She shouted.

"Oh Sam, Sam Sam Sam, don't worry, your role in the game was played out perfectly already," The figure chuckled. "And what a great player you were! So full of anger and passion, and you even got down the romance aspect, well done!" They gave another laugh. "Well, I guess the jig is up, you win." The figure said, slowly reaching up and removing the clown mask, revealing the uninjured face of Josh.

"What the fuck?" Ashley cried out.

"Josh?" Sam asked, not believing her eyes. "You… You did all of this?" Sam said angrily, giving him a death glare and holding herself back from attacking him.

"Josh?" Chris asked, confused.

"Very good!" Josh laughed, pacing the room. "Everyone of you, you got my name! And after all you've been through, too, good. How does it feel?" Josh pretending to look up in thought. "Being scared, helpless, not knowing whether you're going to live or die? All the emotions that I seem to recall my sisters most likely feeling a year ago." Josh paused, glaring at Mike with a poisonous hate. "But guess what? They're dead, and you get to live with nothing but being scared." Josh finished.

"Why?" Sam questioned. "Why would you do this to me and Ashley? We had nothing to do with that sick prank!" She yelled.

"You're right, but unfortunately the real perpetrators weren't the ones who went where everything was set up. It's a shame, but I did try to go easy on you." Josh paused, giving Ashley an apologetic look. "I'm sorry for hitting you, I didn't plan on it, but those scissors hurt like a bitch." Josh said.

"Well I hope you're God damn happy Josh, because guess what? Jessica is DEAD, and it's because of you!" Mike said, looking at Josh with extreme rage.

"What? What are you talking about?" Josh asked, confused.

"You heard me you fucking prick, and you're going to pay!" Mike said, walking up to Josh and punching him in the face hard enough to knock him out.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Here we go with another chapter. Not sure how long it will end up being, I feel like last chapter was a bit too long to sustain in my updates, but the first few ones are too short.

Edit: ATTENTION, THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN HEAVILY CHANGED FOR THE SECOND HALF OF IT.

Disclaimer: I don't own Until Dawn or any related media/thoughts about it.

Chapter 5

3:30 AM, 3 HOURS AND 30 MINUTES UNTIL DAWN

"Jesus… I can't believe he would do that to us," Sam muttered, staring angrily at the unconscious Josh who had collapsed on the floor after Mike punched him. "And that scumbag even punched you!" She continued, looking worriedly at Ashley's black eye and reaching her hand out to grab the other girl's gently.

"Well, to be fair I kinda stabbed him with a pair of scissors after he drugged you," Ashley murmured in response.

Chris looked at her incredulously. "Really?" He asked.

"Yep, check his left shoulder." Ashley replied proudly. She couldn't bring herself to feel bad for stabbing him considering how he was attacking them in a mask at the time, even though in hindsight she felt slightly guilty for hurting her… friend. If he could even be called that anymore.

"Still, he deserved it while you didn't." Sam said, giving Ashley's hand a soft squeeze. Sam stiffened and looked at Mike. "Wait, you said Jessica was dead?" Sam said, remembering the reason Mike knocked Josh out in the first place.

Mike averted his eyes to the floor. "Yeah, I saw it happen. I'm not sure if he was the one to actually do it, but something grabbed her through the cabin window and dragged her off to the mine entrance, and she fell down with a collapsed elevator to God only knows where." He paused. "Thinking back on it, I know he didn't do it himself, it was a bit of a larger, older guy that I tracked to some old mental hospital. Josh must've hired him to do the dirty work for him or something."

Chris spoke up, "You don't think he would really do that, do you? Hire someone to actually kill Jessica?"

"I wouldn't think so, but I also wouldn't have expected him to do any of this period." Mike replied. "Maybe he was targeting Jessica specifically because it was her plan in the first place?"

"It was? How would he have found that out though, he never mentioned that to us." Sam said steadily, getting a bad feeling about this whole situation.

"I don't know… What I do know is that me and Jessica got attacked by someone or something, and that she got killed. Right now we only have one clear suspect, so until I see proof otherwise I'm definitely not letting him roam free. We need to tie him up in the shed and wait until we can contact the authorities." Mike said, looking at Josh with a frown.

"Matt and Emily were going to go try to get some help the last time we saw them," Ashley started. "hopefully they'll be back and safe soon. Now that Josh isn't messing with anyone anymore, they should be fine."

"I hope you're right." Mike said. "Chris, wanna help me out with tying this lunatic up in the shed? Sam and Ashley, you guys can meet us back at the lodge. After that, we'll stay inside until this storm passes, or until Matt and Emily come back with the police."

"Sure thing," Chris responded as he walked over to stand near Josh while Mike tied his hands behind his back.

"Hey crazy, wake up." Mike said as he shook Josh awake, who groaned.  
"Damn, that was a real sucker punch right there..." Josh said as he was stood up. "What are you guys doing?" He asked, noticing he couldn't move his hands.

"Shut up and follow me." Mike said, dragging Josh outside with Chris following closely behind them.

Sam sighed. "Well, we should really start heading back to the main part of the lodge. This place gives me the creeps. Hell, this whole mountain does now…" She said, starting to walk over to the door before pausing and looking back at Ashley expectantly.

"Agreed, let's go," Ashley caught up with Sam and re-grabbed her hand for comfort as they made their way back to the lodge.

X

Chris joined them at the lodge soon after they arrived, sitting down on the couch across from where Sam and Ashley were cuddling in a love seat. He didn't comment on their position, though it seemed a bit more affectionate than usual. "Mike is gonna keep watch over Josh until the police show up. Any sign of the others?" Chris asked.

"So far, no." Sam said, "we just got back a few minutes ago though."

"Damn..." He muttered.

"Don't worry, everything will be fine. Josh won't be able to cause any more harm as long as Mike is keeping him tied up in the shed." Sam paused, "though we really should find some more weapons just in case. Something isn't sitting right with me, especially if Mike was right about Josh hiring some old killer on the mountain."

"Yeah, Mike kept the pistol just in case. Maybe we could find something if we looked around the lodge, but past that we really need to stay here." Chris replied.

"Agreed, it might be safer than before, but it certainly doesn't seem safe outside at all." Ashley said.

"Let's just stay inside until-" Sam started, but was interrupted by a loud feminine scream outside that sounded like it was approaching the house.

"Is that Emily?" Chris said as they all got to their feet and headed to the door on the side of the house that the screams were coming from, just in time to hear frantic banging on the door.

"Let me in, let me in!" Emily screamed hoarsely as Chris opened the door. She scrambled inside the door as quickly as possible, falling over in the process. "Shut the door, oh my God, shut the door!"

Chris closed the door as quickly as possible. "Em, are you all right?" He asked, wondering what could have possibly happened.

"I didn't think I'd make it back," Emily said, trying to calm down.

"You were screaming bloody murder!" Chris exclaimed.  
"Are you okay? You look totally wiped," Ashley said, grasping one of her arms while Sam grasped the other and leading her to the couch.

"Where's Matt? Did you guys split up?" Sam asked as well, her mind racing at what the problem could be this time now that Josh was contained.

"A monster, it's a monster..." Emily started.

"Wait," Chris said. "What are you talking about?"  
"I said there's something out there." Emily replied.

"Like what?" Ashley inquired.

"Maybe it was that old guy Mike was talking about that Josh hired?" Sam said.

"No, no, listen to me," Emily said. "It was after me, and it wasn't human!" She went on to explain.

"Hold on Em, where's Matt, is he okay?" Chris asked.

"Matt, oh God… We couldn't use the cable car to get off the mountain to get help, so we climbed the radio tower and then somehow it completely collapsed, and I fell down into the mine, like way down into the mine, into this terrifying mine shaft. And it was just us down there… And God, I think Matt could be dead..." Emily stuttered, her eyes tearing up.

"Wait what? What happened?" Sam asked.

"I was walking down there in the mines, and it was dark, and I found this… pile, and there was Beth's head!"

"Wait what?" Chris exclaimed.

"Her head…?" Ashley gasped.

"What the fuck." Chris said, starting to pace. "Oh man, this is so screwed up..."

"Are you serious?" Sam asked, knowing what the answer would be.  
"Yes I'm serious," Emily snapped. "I think they fell down there.

"Jesus Christ." Chris muttered.

"But the worst part is, I don't think Hannah died from the fall. At least, not right away..." Emily trailed off.

"What do you mean?" Ashley asked.

"I think she was down there, starving to death for weeks while everyone was up here looking for her. We had no idea..."

"That's horrible," Chris sighed.

"Listen, in the tower was a radio, and I managed to get through to someone before the tower collapsed, and there will be people coming to help us at dawn." Emily said, before Mike quickly rushed into the room.

"Em!" Mike said, looking panicked. He quickly hugged her with relief in his eyes. "I heard you screaming, what happened to Matt?"

"We're trying to figure that out." Ashley responded.

"Yeah, and there was this monster chasing her," Chris said.

"She's all messed up guys. Emily-" Mike started, but suddenly a loud knock came from the front door.

"Whoah..." Chris said.

"Who the fuck could that be?" Mike said, cocking his pistol.

"Josh?" Emily said.

"Maybe Jess?" Chris put forward.

"It's not Jess, and Josh was still tied up in the shed when I came over here." Mike whispered.

"Sorry man, but who is it then?" Chris asked softly.

"I don't know, but we should check it out." Mike slowly started walking towards the door.

"I got your back." Chris said.

"Good," Mike responded.

"I'll open the door, okay? Just be ready." Chris said, putting his hand on the door knob and slowly turning it, before opening it slightly. The door was kicked open by the person outside, and Chris was knocked over from the force.

"Whoah whoah, freeze!" Mike said, pointing the gun at the old man carrying a flamethrower, who glanced at him before taking the gun from his hand. "Okay, okay! Take it easy grandpa." Mike said.

"Now everyone just calm down here. Go over there, and let me say what I've come to say. Go!" The man commanded.

Chris and Mike joined the others in the living room. "I don't know why you kids came back to this mountain after what happened last year, but you need to know what you're up against." The old man said. "You really never should've returned. Make sure if you make it off alive this time that you stay gone. This mountain is haunted by the wendigo spirits."

"The what?" Sam asked.

"Now listen up, because I'm only going to say this once, whether you believe me or not. You kids deserve a fair warning." He started "There is a curse that dwells in these mountains. Should any man or woman resort to cannibalism in these woods, the spirit of the wendigo shall be unleashed."

"Oh crap." Mike muttered, remembering the odd circumstances of Jessica's kidnapping as well as the strange humanoid shape of whatever he had in his rifle's sight, not to mention a few other times when he felt something was off.

"You're gonna need to find somewhere safe to bunker down in."

"The basement might be okay," Sam put forward.

"Okay, get down there, all of you, and wait."

"What? Why? For how long?" Sam asked.

"Until dawn." Emily responded knowingly. "That's when the rangers are going to bring help, and when the monsters aren't going to be roaming around trying to kill us."

"Guys..." Mike spoke up. "I ran off and left Josh when I heard screaming." He said worriedly.

"Where did you leave him?" The old man asked.

"In the shed."

"Your friend will already be dead." he said, resigned.

"No..." Chris muttered. "He can't be, we were just with him!"

"A lot can happen quickly on this mountain."

"No, I'm going to go get him." Chris stated.

"What? Chris, you can't!" Ashley said. "Didn't you hear him? There are man-eating monsters out there, there's no way you'll get there!"

"I can't just do nothing. He's my best friend, and I let him down big time. He might be dead because of us not believing him that he didn't do anything to Jess."

"No, Chris, he let you down. He let all of us down. What were we supposed to think?" Sam stated with an angry look in her eyes. "Even if he didn't kill Jessica, he kidnapped and traumatized me and Ashley, and he gave her a black eye. Anything that happens to him is his fault." She said firmly.

"I guess you're right, but still, I have to try. He might have done some fucked up shit tonight, but he doesn't deserve to get murdered by some cannibal creature for it." Chris stated.

"Then I'll go with you." The man said.

"I… Sure." Chris said, realizing he stood no chance alone against the wendigo creatures.

"The rest of you, get down to the basement. Be safe, and don't go outside again until we're back." He paused to look at Chris. "You need to do everything I tell you if you want to come back alive. One mistake and we both could wind up dead tonight."

"Got it." Chris said, following the old man outside.

"I'll stay up here and wait for them to get back, hopefully with Josh. You guys head down to the basement." Mike said.

"Sure, thanks Mike." Sam said, leading Ashley by the hand down into the basement, followed by Emily "We should be safe here," Sam said, taking note of where all the doors to the room were. It looked like there was the door they came in through plus one other door that actually led somewhere, but it was barred shut. The door they came through was heavy and made of solid metal, so it seemed secure enough.

"I hope so." Ashley said. "I'm pretty done with almost dying tonight."

Sam came over to the area with the monitors, hopping up and sitting on the table next to them. Ashley joined her and sat next to her, resting her head on Sam's shoulder.

It wasn't long before Mike came down the stairs with an extremely perturbed look in his eyes.

"Mike? Where is Chris and the old guy?" Emily asked.

"Chris… He," Mike paused. "That thing killed him and flung his head at the door," he continued softly.

"Holy shit!" Ashley exclaimed, starting to panic.

"I can't believe.. Wow," Sam said, sighing and gripping Ashley's hand hard in her own. She could only hope and pray that she could deliver on her promise to get Ashley out of this alive against a heartless monster like that.

"I don't think we can stay here." Mike said, looking around the room for another way out.

"Why not? This might not be the safest place in the world right now, but it's sure as hell better than wandering around looking for something better that might not even exist. You just saw Chris die, and he was within 50 meters of the lodge. I'm staying right here." Sam said.

"How is this place safe at all? It's like wrapping a bow around us and handing all of us to the monster for Christmas to tear apart." Mike said, looking around anxiously.

"It has two reinforced doors that at the very least would give us time to get out before the monster could break through it. It's also a fairly secluded area, if the wendigo is just roaming around hunting prey outside, there's absolutely no reason it would come here unless someone managed to lead it here."

"Fine, you can stay here if you want, but I'm getting out of here." Mike huffed.

"Mike, we don't have the key to the cable car, we can't." Emily said.

"Josh, I bet he has the key." Mike replied.

"Josh?" Ashley asked.

"All part of his sick game, I can almost guarantee he had the key on him. And if that monster has Josh..." He trailed off. "I need to find where it took him. Then we can all get out of this place for sure." He finished.

"I… I'm pretty sure it lives down in the mines," Emily said. "I was down there earlier and there was a lot of messed up stuff, including the monster. Or a monster."

"Okay, then I'm going to get that damn key right from its bedroom, then I'll come back for you guys." Mike said.

"You really shouldn't do this, just stay where it's relatively safe and secure." Sam said.

"I can't, we have to have a backup plan." Mike said. "If it finds us, then what are we going to do, run the other way? Then we're going to be stuck up here without any other place to go, and we won't be able to last long at all that way."

Sam sighed. "If you insist on going, just make sure that when you come back it's not with one of those things behind you. Like I said, if these things are normal predators, there's no reason they'll force their way into both the lodge and the basement in particular unless someone tips them off that we're in here."

"Don't worry, I won't." Mike replied as he grabbed his gun and took off out of the tunnel door. Sam got up and put the bar back in before returning to Ashley and sitting back down.

Emily awkwardly paced around for a few moments, feeling very much out of place with the other two girls being rather intimate, before noticing a journal type book on the table. She picked it up and flipped it open, seeing that it was titled Wendigo. "This is insane..." She muttered as she read about the features of the wendigo, as well as how dangerous it was.

"What is it?" Sam asked.

"It's a book explaining a bunch of facts about the wendigo creatures, apparently they're pretty much unkillable, and even killing them just causes the spirit to be released into the air. That, and they're super fast and super strong, oh God, there's no way Mike can handle these things alone," Emily said, worried. "We have to go after him," She stated.

"Emily, he made his choice. Do you really think us being with him would make a difference against something like that?" Sam said.

"I don't care, I can't just let him die!" Emily gulped. "I'm going after him." She stated firmly.

Sam sighed, "Fine. I really don't like this, though." She got up off the table and looked at Ashley questioningly. "Are you okay with this?" She asked quietly.

"Not really, but I know that we have to try." Ashley replied, gazing at the door Mike had left through with a slight tremble.

"Okay, we need to find some sort of flashlights though, I really don't want to be wandering around in the dark. It'd be nice if we could get some sort of weapons, too." Sam said, looking around the room. She managed to find a miner's hat with a working light. "I guess this will have to do."

"According to the book, wendigos are completely blind, and they hunt through sound. Just keep that in mind if one of them finds us." Emily said, recalling the details from the book. "Also, fire is the only way to kill them, guns don't really do much."

"Good to know." Sam replied, walking over to the barred door leading to the passageway. "Let's go, then." Sam swallowed her fear and opened the door, peeking into the long, narrow hallway. Seeing nothing dangerous, she gestured for the others to follow her.

They walked down the narrow hallway as quietly as they could while still keeping a decent pace, but soon approached the end of the hallway where a large door stood in their way. Sam tried opening it, "Shit, Mike must've locked it behind him. Crap, there's gotta be another way in." Sam muttered, looking around.

Ashley spoke up, "Wait, hey, what about this?" She pointed to a water drainage entrance in the ground, covered by a large metal lid.

"It's not like we have much of a choice I guess. Let's try it, I'll go first. If there's any sign of trouble, get back to the basement room, okay?" Sam said firmly.

"Sure..." Ashley said unhappily.

"Okay, can you get this thing open?" Sam asked as she noticed Ashley holding a pipe.

"Yeah, gimme a sec." Ashley put the pipe in one of the small openings and wedged it open. She tried lifting the lid up to move it, but could hardly get it to budge.

"Here, let me give you a hand with that." Sam said, grabbing the other side of the lid and moving it to the side.

In the hole was a ladder downwards, about 15 feet long. From what they could see, it opened up into another broken down tunnel with heavy structural damage. Thankfully, moonlight managed to penetrate into its depths so it wasn't completely dark.

"This is the last place I want to be right now," Ashley muttered as she looked nervously into the opening.

"Yeah..." Sam said, but she lowered herself onto the ladder regardless. "This isn't so bad," Sam commented, gesturing to follow her. "You think this is the tunnel to the sanitarium?"

"Yeah, where else would it go?" Ashley replied as Emily started going down the ladder, with her coming down last. "Hey, do you guys think we should maybe close this? What if something follows us?"

Sam glanced up at Ashley from the bottom of the ladder. "Honestly, if one of those monsters is following us, I doubt that manhole cover being there will stop it. Besides, that passage only leads back to the basement or to the locked door. We should be fine, and we might have to come back this way."

"All right, that makes sense," Ashley shrugged and left it open.

"Let's go," Sam said as Ashley finished climbing down the ladder. The passageway was cold, damp, and dark up ahead. Hints of moonlight illuminated parts of the tunnel, but the main source of light was Sam's head lamp. They made their way forward through the tunnel until they came to a fork.

In the distance off one way, a feminine scream suddenly burst out, "Help me! Please, save me! Oh God!"

Sam spoke out, "That sounds like Jessica!"

"Wait," Emily said softly, causing Sam to pause before she could go down the passage that led to the voice. "In the book, it said that wendigos can mimic humans… Mike said that he saw Jessica die to one of these things, it can't actually be her." Emily continued. "We really need to avoid that way."

"I… I guess you're right," Sam grimaced.

"Good call Em." Ashley said.

"Let's go then. We need to get out of here quickly and quietly though if one of those things is close enough for us to hear." Sam jumped down the small drop into the other passageway, away from where the screams were coming from.

The others followed her, and they proceeded down the tunnel. Eventually, they came to a mine shaft opening into a large room with another section about 20 feet higher than where they were at, however the staircase and ladders to it were broken.

"Look… Everything is broken, we're never going to make it up there," Ashley sighed.

"I hate to admit it, but you're right." Emily said, sighing frustratedly. "Mike probably climbed up or something, but there's no way all of us can make it up." She continued.

Sam frowned. She knew that she could probably climb that wall, but that would mean leaving Ashley with Emily to go back to the lodge, and she knew she wasn't willing to let Ashley out of her sight. "We should just head back to the lodge, Mike can handle himself. Hell, he might even be back there already." Sam said, doubting what she said could be true.

"I guess." Emily said in a dejected tone as they headed back the way they came.

They managed to get back to the ladder leading up to the manhole opening without issue. "I'll make sure it's safe," Sam said, climbing up the ladder quickly. When she got to the top, she had a look around the hallway while still on the top rung. "It looks clear," She said, going out to the top.

"All right," Ashley said as she climbed up next. Emily followed shortly behind her. "We should definitely put that back this time though, I have a bad feeling about whatever was down there..."

"I agree, help me move it back over the hole," Sam said, looking at Ashley, who nodded. They struggled, but lifted it up and aligned it with the manhole. "Okay, gently, gent-" Sam said, but Ashley's fingers slipped, causing the lid to slam against the metal, a loud crashing sound echoing out throughout the cave below. "God damn it," Sam swore, and Ashley looked horrified.

"RRRRAGGHHHRRRRRRRR" A loud screech was heard from down below, followed by another one soon after.  
"Run!" Emily said, and her and Ashley started running down the hall.  
"Wait, we need to barricade this! There's a cement block on the shelf over there, quick!" Sam called out. Ashley paused, turning around and coming back to help Sam move the mid-sized piece of concrete, while Emily continued running back to the basement.  
"Just… Drop it," Sam groaned out, the block being considerably heavier than even the metal grate was.

"Okay, we need to get out of here now!" Ashley said, taking Sam's hand and starting to run down the hallway as banging and rattling sounds started coming from the grate. Thankfully, with the weight of the stone block above it, it didn't budge.

"I'm sorry, Jesus, I'm so sorry," Ashley panted as they ran, the basement door in sight.  
"Don't worry Ash, we're still fine aren't we?" Sam said, giving Ashley a reassuring look.

"Yeah, thanks to you," Ashley replied. "Thanks for staying with me… I know you probably could've climbed that wall back there, and we'd be completely screwed without you."

"I promised you that I'd get us both off this mountain, and I intend to keep that promise." Sam said, pausing. "Mike is a cool guy, but the choice isn't even close with who I'd rather keep safe."

"Thank you, Sam." Ashley said. They quickly caught up to Emily at the door, who was pulling it open.

"Quick, everyone get in," Sam ordered. Once everyone was back in the room, she shut and barred the door. "I don't think that they managed to get out of the manhole, but just in case, we need to barricade this door. Help me drag those storage shelves over here," She said to nobody in particular. All three of them helped to drag one of the shelves over in front of the door, putting them up against it.

"Jesus Christ," Emily finally muttered, exhaling a deep breath.

"Yeah..." Sam simply nodded. "Well, it looks like we're back to square one… Though we only have about an hour left until morning now. I think it's a safe bet to just wait it out here. They have to either get through the manhole or that giant metal door to get in from the tunnel, or they have to make their way through the house and that giant metal door to get in from the lodge or outside. As much as I hate to say it, we're not heroes, and we're not going to be helping anyone but the monsters by going out to try to find Mike at this point." Sam stated.

Ashley nodded, willing to follow whatever Sam said.

"You're probably right, but Jesus, did you catch a glimpse of those claws? How could Mike ever survive against even one of them..?" Emily put her head in her hands.

"Mike's a tough guy. If anyone can find a way to live through all of this, it's him." Sam said, trying to cheer the girl up.

"I hope you're right." Emily said, going over to a chair in the corner and sitting down pensively.

Ashley walked over to the camera monitors. "We should really keep an eye on these, it looks like there's a camera in a decent amount of spots around the house and the surrounding area. It could at least give us a warning if someone is coming, or… something." She shivered.

Sam nodded and dragged two chairs over, placing them in front of the screens. "We just need to make it a little longer Ash..." Sam said as they sat down, gently taking Ashley's hand in her own.

"Yeah.. but what comes after that?" Ashley sighed, leaning her head against Sam's shoulder, but keeping her eyes trained on the monitors.  
"What do you mean?" Sam asked.  
"Before tonight, the world was normal… There was no such thing as a wendigo, a freakish cannibal monster that is almost impossible to kill and hunts people at night. Things like that were just horror story tools used to keep people up at night, but now? How can we even know what's real and what's not anymore? What if wendigos aren't the only monsters out there?" Ashley sighed. "I guess I should probably just focus on surviving the night before I worry about all that, but it's really bothering me."

Sam gave her hand a squeeze. "I know what you mean, but don't worry, we just need to avoid going out of our way to dangerous places. I mean, think about it, if cities were dangerous because of these monsters, we'd know about it, right? It seems isolated into places like this; out of the beaten path, private places." Sam said, though she wondered if the other girl's words held truth. She certainly hoped not.

"You're probably right." Was all Ashley replied.

"Well, there's really no way these things come near any cities," Emily spoke up. "There's no way that nobody would see or hear about them if there were random disappearances caused by inhuman monsters. We just need to make sure nobody comes up here ever again. It's not like anyone would believe us if we told the truth though..." Emily trailed off.

"Yeah, you have to admit it'd be hard to believe without experiencing it first-hand." Sam nodded.

"Let's just have the Washingtons close it off for good." Ashley said, "Even if nobody else would believe us, I know they would. Especially because those things got Josh, too."

"We can definitely try." Sam responded, nodding.

After that, Sam and Ashley both stayed busy watching the screens, trying to catch even the smallest hint of movement. Before long, the final hour until dawn had passed, and morning had finally come.

"Let's just stick around down here for a bit longer, I'm not exactly comfortable with wandering around before it's even fully daytime." Sam said. "The rescue party was supposed to come 'at dawn' right Emily?"

"Yes," Emily paused. "That's when the radio guy told me they'd be here."

"Okay, let's just wait for them to come then." Sam said, leaning back in her chair. "It looks like we're probably in the clear though," She continued, sighing in relief. The old man's journal about the wendigo creatures said that they were nocturnal, so they should be returning or already returned back to their caves by now.

"Yeah… Still no sign of Mike though." Emily said, sighing sadly. "I hope he managed to find a way off the mountain somehow."

"Yeah, me too." Sam agreed, though she thought it was unlikely that he'd just leave them up here if he found a way out, it was possible that he didn't have a choice.

Before long, a search party consisting of several uniformed rangers approached the house, armed with rifles and a few pistols.

"It looks like they're here," Ashley commented, relief evident in her voice.

"Thank God, let's go." Sam said, walking over to the door that led into the lodge and opening it. Daylight streamed into the house from the windows above, causing the manor to look warm and inviting despite the horrifying events that took place around it in the night.

"Ranger services, open up!" A voice called, accompanied by a loud knock on the front door.

"We're inside! Coming!" Sam called, quickly walking to the front door with the other two shortly behind her. "Thank God we're still alive..." Sam muttered, an enormous weight being lifted off her shoulders as she realized that they really were safe now.

"Are you guys okay?" One of the rangers – a young male in his 20s – asked.

"No, not really… But we're alive, and that's what counts." Sam said. "Emily is the one that contacted you guys on the radio last night," She pointed to Emily, who nodded. "It's been a really rough night, can we just… Can we get off this mountain?" Sam asked.

"Well, sure… We'll send a few people to escort you to the cable cars that we came up in, the rest of us will continue checking the area. Is that okay?" One of the male rangers, presumably the one in charge, said. "Also, we're going to have to get statements from you guys about what happened, it sounds like whatever it was could've had casualties."

"Did… It did have casualties… A lot more than it should've." Ashley muttered.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Was his response. "Okay, my boys will get you off this mountain, just follow them." He said, wanting to get them off the scene so he could focus on the investigation. Something about this place seemed off.

Three rangers escorted the girls away from the lodge, towards the direction of the cable cars. When they were a decent ways away from the lodge, they heard a shout. "What the fuck!" one of the rangers screamed. "Chief, we found a fucking head over here, just a fucking head, Jesus!"

"Oh God..." Emily cried out, quickening her pace.

"What the hell happened up here?" A female ranger that was escorting them asked.

"Honestly, I don't even know myself anymore..." Sam muttered. "Too much. One of our friends went crazy with a sick idea of a revenge prank, and then people started actually dying," Sam said.

"Damn," She muttered. "Sounds like a pretty fucked up night."

"Yeah, it was." Ashley murmured. "Let's just get out of here, please?" She asked desperately, trying not to think about the fact that the rangers had just found one of her friends' heads on the ground outside.

They reached the cable cars shortly. The rangers had several copies of spare keys for the thing just in case the original was lost, and they needed to respond to a distress call(like they were in the process of doing), so they quickly were able to get it started and get the girls off the mountain. One of the rangers rode down with them, while the others rejoined the search party.

"We're out..." Sam said. "We actually made it," she continued, pulling Ashley tight against her and kissing her lovingly, unable to hold herself back from expressing her joy that they both got out alive. Neither the ranger nor Emily commented, though both looked away a bit awkwardly.

Ashley had a prominent blush on her face, but smiled nevertheless as they broke off the kiss. "Yeah, we did."

End

A/N: Okay, now that's the real end this time. I was very unsatisfied with my other one, so I re-wrote a heavy portion of it. I'm still going to write that smut-filled epilogue, but it's going to be slightly different with this version of things. It shouldn't take too long for me to get that out… But it's not really important to the story even if it does, it's just for personal gratification, as well as to sum up who lived and whatnot.

So yeah, I hope everyone enjoyed this version more than the last one. I just couldn't stand having it end like that, I knew after I wrote it that it was taking the lazy way out of writing a real closer. While this ending isn't perfect(There was really no way to logically have an intense climax), I feel like it's a lot more true to the characters and a bit more realistic.

However, without Sam, Mike couldn't have come back to the lodge because he had no way of leaving the sanitarium, so I couldn't actually have him run back like he does in the game- So I had to make do without that scene.

Thanks for reading,

Palistus


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Okay, here's the epilogue that we've all been waiting for.

Enjoy.

Epilogue: 1 week after dawn

Images flashed through her mind chaotically; she saw herself crying, begging Sam not to pull the trigger as the saw-blade above them got ever closer to them. She saw Sam slumping over as soon as the gunshot rang out. Immediately, the setting switched to the tunnel leading to the basement, more specifically the sharp claws sticking out through the manhole. Only this time, the manhole bursted off, and an inhuman shape emerged from it, coming closer… closer…

Ashley's eyes flashed open, her heart hammering against her ribcage to the point of being almost painful. "Jesus Christ..." Ashley said, her eyes watering and her body trembling. She looked around her and sighed in relief as she saw that she was in her college dorm room, completely monster-free.

She looked around for her phone, before remembering she put it on her nightstand before going to sleep. She grabbed it and opened it, searching for Sam's contact profile.

Ashley: Hey, are you awake?

She sent out, before getting an answer within a few minutes:

Sam: Yeah, what's up?

She typed out a reply.

Ashley: Can you come keep me company tonight? I can't get everything out of my head..

Sam: Omw.

Ashley sighed in relief. Every single night since what had been dubbed as the Blackwood Mountain Massacre, she'd been having nonstop nightmares about everything that had happened. "God..." Ashley clenched her fist as tears spilled from her eyes.

In the end, the search party found nobody else alive on the mountain; Only her, Sam, and Emily managed to get out alive. Ever since then, Sam had been her rock that kept her from going insane with grief and paranoia- at thoughts of what had happened, and thoughts of what may happen.

Knock knock. The door rapped out.

"Hey Ash, it's me," Sam's voice called out from behind the door.

Ashley quickly scittered over to the door and opened it, grabbing Sam's hand and pulling her inside. "Thank you so much for coming, I really don't want to be alone tonight," She said, wrapping her blonde savior in a tight hug.

Sam smiled gently. "Don't worry about it, I'm here for you whenever you need me." She proceeded to return the embrace.

"I know… And you know I'm here for you too, right? I know you're tough and all, but I..." Ashley trailed off with a sigh.

"I know." Sam stated, giving Ashley a soft kiss on the cheek before pulling away from the hug. "So, what do you wanna do?" She gave a sly grin. "Want to watch another horror movie?"

Ashley shuddered. "I don't think I'll be ready to watch a horror movie for a while..." She said.

"Really?" Sam looked at her questioningly. "Honestly, it's the opposite for me. After going through what we did on that mountain, horror movies feel like kid's cartoons."

"Maybe some other time then," Ashley grinned shyly. "Honestly, part of why I always wanted to watch horror movies with you is how close you got when you were scared, anyways."

"Hah, I should've known," Sam said, leaning over and planting a chaste kiss on Ashley's lips. "Well you don't need an excuse anymore you know." She smirked.

"In that case, would you mind just cuddling with me a bit? I'm really tired of feeling so afraid all the time, and when you're with me all of that just disappears..." Ashley turned her head sideways, looking away nervously.

"You bet!" Sam said brightly. "Just let me get changed real quick, okay?" She continued, and walked into the bathroom with her bag.

Ashley went and sat down on her bed, fidgeting restlessly. It didn't take Sam long to walk back into her room, wearing a red bra and loose sweatpants.

Sam walked over to Ashley's bed and sat down next to the smaller girl, smiling gently at her. "Want me to be the big spoon?" She asked.

Ashley nodded. "Sure," She said as she lied down, stretching out across her bed and turning onto her side. Sam crawled behind her and wrapped an arm around her. "Thanks for coming, I'm feeling a lot better," Ashley said, closing her eyes and gently gripping Sam's hand that was around her stomach with her own.

"Any time Ashley," Sam paused for a few moments to place a small kiss on the back of Ashley's neck. "I love you," She said.

Ashley turned her head so that she could look Sam in the eyes. "I love you too Sam," She said, leaning in slowly and planting her lips on Sam's. Sam whimpered softly with desire before deepening the kiss by thrusting her tongue into the brunette's mouth. She proceeded to snake her hand under Ashley's wool pajama top to run it over the brunette's stomach and abdomen.

Ashley soon broke the kiss to gasp for air. "Jesus," Ashley moaned with need and turned her body around to be facing Sam. She crawled on top of her blonde girlfriend, positioning her legs on either side of Sam's thighs.

As Ashley repositioned herself, Sam rested her hands on the back of Ashley's thighs. "Do you mind, well..." Sam blushed heavily. "Can you take your shirt off?" She finished.

Ashley's stomach clenched at the flurry of butterflies she felt, but she slowly nodded her head. She slowly lifted up her shirt, revealing first her taut midriff. She paused for a moment, before continuing to reveal her mid-sized bust, and finally taking slipping it over her head and tossing it to the side of the bed. She looked to the side nervously, as this was the first time anyone had seen her fully topless before.

Sam trailed her eyes up and down Ashley's body, her lustful gaze growing stronger. "God, you're so hot Ash," She said appreciatively.

"R-Really?" Ashley stuttered, her face growing red. "You're not just saying that…?" She asked.

"No, you're absolutely perfect to me," Sam smiled as she ran her hand up and down Ashley's bare back, sending chills through her spine.

Ashley grinned brightly at the praise, leaning down and placing a hand on Sam's cheek before re-initiating the kiss. She pressed her body into Sam's as pure want coursed through her entire body.

"Sam," Ashley panted as she pulled away. "I want you so bad," She said. "Are you okay with this though? I don't want to rush you..." Ashley trailed off, looking down at the blonde beauty questioningly.

"Don't worry, I want you too, a lot." Sam said. "Here, let's make this a bit more fair," Sam smirked as she unclasped her bra and slid it off.

Ashley gazed at Sam's bare tits with desire, before leaning in and hungrily attacking Sam's lips in a passion-filled kiss.

Sam placed one hand on Ashley's still covered ass, while using the other to grope her breast. Ashley let out a pleasure-filled moan as she felt Sam's thumb trailed across her hardened nipples, and she pressed her body tightly against Sam, trying to eliminate any space that might remain between them.

Ashley needed more. She could hardly contain herself as she broke the kiss, and quickly switched to sucking and licking at Sam's neck. She brought one of her hands up to caress Sam's midriff, and the other slipped below them to grip Sam's ass.

"Mmm, Ash..." Sam moaned out as she turned her head back, allowing Ashley more access to her neck.

Spurred on by Sam's pleasure-filled moan, Ashley trailed her mouth downwards, placing soft kisses on every bit of skin between Sam's neck, and her sizable boobs. She gently took one of Sam's hardened nipples into her mouth, suckling softly and using her tongue to caress it.

Sam's hands shot up to the back of Ashley's head, gently holding her in place as her breath grew labored. "That feels so good," She said.

Ashley smiled up at her, but said nothing as she switched to give attention to the other small pink nub. She soon gulped, before moving her mouth down to Sam's stomach, laying down a torrent of small kisses on that as well. She inhaled a deep breath, before sighing shakily with pure lust as she smelled Sam's arousal emanating from her. She reached the hem of Sam's sweatpants, before giving a questioning look up at Sam's eyes.

Sam nodded, causing Ashley to grin as she hooked her hands into either side of the sweatpants, and tugging them down. She trailed the article of clothing down Sam's legs slowly, making sure to run her hands along the soft skin the full way down. When the sweatpants were finally fully removed, Ashley directed her attention back to Sam's fully shaven, and clearly moist sex.

"I've never done this before, so please let me know if I do something wrong… Or right." Ashley stated with a smirk before diving in. She ran her tongue up and down the outside of Sam's slit, pausing to circle her clit whenever she passed it.

"Oh God, Ashley!" Sam let out as she placed on hand on the back of Ashley's head, being a bit less gentle as she pushed her hips into Ashley's face, desperate for any friction she could get. Her other hand ran over her own tits as she roughly groped herself.

Ashley didn't let up as she pushed her tongue into the entrance of Sam's pussy, placing her lips up against it and slowly wriggling it around inside of the blonde.

"You're doing something… very right..." Sam panted as Ashley's tongue penetrated her womanhood and set it aflame with pleasure. "I- God!" Sam let out as Ashley took Sam's clit into her mouth and gently sucked.

Ashley released the bundle of nerves and went back to licking at Sam's opening, before quickly coming back and repeating her previous suckling.

"Don't stop!" Sam moaned as she bucked her hips into Ashley's face and exerted pressure on the back of her head roughly. Ashley took her advice and started to suckle on her clit even harder, before wrapping her tongue around it and roughly licking Sam's clit as if her life depended on it.

"Yes! Fuck, Ashley!" Sam felt her entire body explode with pleasure as she rode out her orgasm on Ashley's tongue. Her body soon fell limp onto the bed, and Ashley rose back up Sam's body to give her a deep kiss.

"Did you like it," Ashley asked nervously as Sam recovered.

"Like it? I absolutely loved it, you felt so good," Sam said, closing her eyes. "And now it's your turn," She smirked.

"Are you sure, you don't have to, you know..." Ashley said nervously, her previous confidence wavering.

"You're right, but I really, really want to." Sam replied. "These will have to come off," Sam said as she gripped Ashley's pajama bottoms and slid them down the girl's legs until she couldn't reach any further- finishing the task with her legs and feet. "I know exactly what we're gonna do," Sam said. "Here, scoot up and place your hands on the headboard," Sam said as she placed both hands on Ashley's tight ass and gently pushed her up.

"O-Okay..." Ashley said as she lifted her hips and moved up Sam's body, catching on to where she was going. Her waist was right above Sam's face as both her hands gripped the headboard of the bed.

"Perfect," Sam said softly as she looked up at Ashley's puffy, moist pussy. She used her hands to push Ashley's butt down, causing her sex to go down to Sam's mouth. Sam immediately shot her tongue out into Ashley's awaiting folds, pushing her mouth against her wet heat while she applied pressure from behind to create as much friction as possible.

"Fuck, that feels amazing!" Ashley mewled as her hips involuntarily jerked into Sam's face, craving for her tongue to go deeper. "Your tongue is so hot inside me… God Sam, I love how your tongue feels!" Ashley said, closing her eyes and starting to roughly thrust herself against Sam's face. "I'm already so close..." Ashley murmured as she felt a heavy pressure building inside of her core.

"Fuck yes!" Ashley cried out. "Keep going! Fuck my tight pussy with your tongue!" Ashley continued as she felt the floodgates open and she orgasmed. "I'm cumming Sam, Jesus Christ, it feels so good!"

Sam just kept licking as fast as she could as the other girl bucked her hips against Sam's face, riding out the full extent of her release. Within a few seconds- though it felt like much longer- Ashley sighed happily and slid her body back down the bed, giving Sam a loving kiss before collapsing to the side of her.

"Give me a moment," Ashley panted out with a big smile on her face. "I've never felt that good in my life," She continued. She sought out Sam's hand and gripped it in her own tightly, and felt Sam squeeze hers as well.

"Me either, it definitely beats a horror movie any day," Sam responded jokingly.

Ashley's panting grew lighter soon as she recovered her breath, and Sam really wanted to try something that she felt would be even better.

She crawled on top of Ashley's body, firmly placing her legs on either side of Ashley's hips, before lowering her face down to kiss her softly.

Ashley gazed up at her with pure love and passion as she licked Sam's lips in a request for entrance.

The request was soon granted and Ashley took the initiative to explore Sam's mouth with her tongue,

Sam started to feel herself growing excited again, and she couldn't stop herself from gently pushing her hips into Ashley's.

"Mmm," Ashley moaned as their bodies rubbed up against each other. She slightly opened her legs subconsciously, and Sam took the opening to push apart her legs, spreading them open completely. She nestled herself into the opening, and trailed her hand around Ashley's waist.

"Ashley..." Sam groaned hoarsely as she thrust herself against the other girl over and over, building speed and force with each thrust.

"Fuck, I love you Samantha," Ashley moaned as she brought her feet across Sam's thighs tightly, locking the blonde in place and pushing her even harder against her.

"I love you too, Ashley." Sam replied as she locked their lips again.

It wasn't long before both girls felt their bodies clenching up. "Cum with me, Ash," Sam said as she felt herself extremely close to orgasm.

"Yes… Yes, you feel so good… I'm cumming Sam," Ashley cried out as she bucked her hips up to match Sam's thrusting.

"Me too- God, you feel so fucking good," Sam moaned shortly after as she felt an explosion of pleasure filling all of her senses.

Both girls were panting heavily as their thrusts stopped. Sam gave Ashley a chaste kiss before getting off of her, getting back to her original position by Ashley's side and wrapping her arm around her protectively.

Ashley turned onto her side as well and snuggled into her, sighing happily when Sam rested one of her legs in between hers. They were both extremely exhausted by this point, so unsurprisingly, they were asleep within minutes.

That night was the first night since the massacre that Ashley managed to sleep peacefully.

End.


End file.
